at 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN; 



CONTAINING 



AN ACCOUNT 



COLOR, SALTNESS, AND PROBABLE DEPTH OF THE 

OCEAN; OF ITS MOUNTAINS OF ICE, GULFS, 

WHIRLPOOLS, CURRENTS, AND TLDES; 

AND OF ITS 

CORAL AND OTHER FORMATIONS AND PRODUCTIONS, 

SO FAR AS KNOWN, 
WHETHER ANIMAL, MINERAL, OR VEGETABLE. 

COMPILED BY 

RET. J. L. BLAKE, D. D, 



" Likeness of Heaven ! Agent of Power ! 
Man is thy victim, Shipwrecks thy dower! 
Spices and jewels from valley and sea, 
Armies and banners are buried in thee !" 



CAZENOVTA, N. Y. : 

PUBLISHED BY HENRY & SWEETLANDS, 
1845. 



■ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 

REV. JOHN L. BLAKE, D. D., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District o* 

New York. 



u4 O'.^hJKU, 



PREFACE. 



The inspired penman said the way of God was in the 
sea, and that his footsteps were unknown. The leading 
sentiment of this declaration is, that the ocean is one of 
the vast theatres in which He displays his wisdom and 
power ; and yet, that He can no more be traced therein, 
than can be seen the footsteps of a man who might walk 
upon the surface of the water. This is true of the Divine 
operations generally in the material universe ; but in the 
deep ocean, which lies concealed from human vision, it is 
peculiarly true. 

Let us in imagination place ourselves on board a ship 
about mid ocean. It is midnight, and fearfully dark. Not 
a star is seen. A tempest with tremendous fury sweeps 
over the wide expanse. Wave succeeds wave, like roll- 
ing mountains, each rising higher than the preceding one. 
Clinging to the rigging, we stand in amazement. The 
winds howl, and fill us with terror ; and we shudder, lest, 
at the next plunge of our shivering barque, we become 
buried amid the mighty billows. True, a calm relieves 
us from peril, and we are safe. Here has been one of the 
most sublime spectacles of the ocean ever witnessed ; yet 
how little have we seen, or do we hence know of the un- 
counted treasures and mysterious workings of her un- 
explored regions ! We have never looked down into her 
unfathomable depths. We know but a little of what they 
contain. We have seen a few of her gigantic animals, 



4 PREFACE. 

and have had vague accounts of others more monstrous 
than those we have seen. And the presumption is, there 
may be others more hideous and frightful than even the 
latter. 

Now if the waters of the ocean were to be suddenly re- 
moved ; and if its deep and unmeasured caverns were to 
be laid open to the examination of earth's inhabitants, what 
a host of marvellous things would meet the eye ! Were 
we to suppose that the thousands, and the tens of thou- 
sands, and the hundreds of thousands of those huge and 
monstrous animals could be gathered together in promiscu- 
ous crowds and heaps, all alive and struggling with their 
mighty energies for life and for liberty, what an exhibition 
would be presented ! And suppose all the ships that have, 
in all ages of the world, been buried underneath her waves, 
were to be arranged in an erect posture, on some ocean 
pampas, would they not appear like a wide forest, and 
would they not be sufficient for the commerce of the en- 
tire world ! And, if all the bones of all the human beings 
that have in all ages of the world been lost in the briny 
deep, were to be spread out on its surface, would they not 
whiten a whole continent ! And are there not too, in those 
ocean regions, whole cities with their dwellings, and ware- 
houses, and workshops, and churches, and palaces, sunk 
amid nature's convulsions from their original elevation, and 
buried by the gushing waters which have filled up the 
chasm over them ! 

Editor. 

; New Yore, August 2d, 1845. 



INTRODUCT ON. 



What a wonder is the ocean ! How wide does it 
stretch out its arms, clasping islands and continents in its 
embrace ! How mysterious are its depths ! — still more 
mysterious its hoarded and hidden treasures ! With what 
weight do its watery masses roll onward to the shore, 
when not a breath of wind is moving over its surface ! 
How wonderfully fearful is it, when its waves, in mid 
ocean, are foaming and tossing their heads in anger under 
the lash of the tempest ! How wonderfully beautiful, 
when like a melted and ever-moving mirror, it reflects the 
setting sun, or the crimson clouds, or the saffron heavens, 
after the sun has set ; or when its " watery floor" breaks 
into myriads of fragments the image of the quiet moon that 
falls upon it from the skies ! 

Wonderful, too, are those hills of ice that break off, in 
thunder, from the frozen barriers of the pole, and float 
towards the sun, their bristling pinnacles glistening in his 
beams, and slowly wasting away under his power, an ob- 
ject at once of wonder and of dread to the mariner, till 
they are lost in the embrace of more genial deeps. And, 
that current is a wonder, which moves forever onward 
from the southern seas, to the colder latitudes, bearing in 
its waters the influence of the tropical sun, and saying to 
the icebergs from the pole, " Hitherto may ye come, but 
no farther." And, if possible, still more wonderful are 
those springs of fresh water, which among Indian Isles 
gush from the depths of a salt ocean, a source of refresh- 
ment and life to the seaman who is parching with thirst 
beneath a burning sky. 

And is it not as wonderful, when, not a spring of fresh 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

water, but a column of volcanic fire shoots up from " the 
dark unfathomed caves of ocean," and throws its red glare 
far over the astonished waves, that heave and tremble 
with the heaving and trembling earth below them! won- 
derful, when that pillar of fire vanishes, leaving a smoking 
volcano in its place ! and wonderful, when that volcano, 
in its turn, sinks back and is lost in the depths whence it 
rose ! 

Then there are other wonders in the living creatures 
of the deep, from the animalcule, that "no eye can see," 
and that scarcely " glass can reach," up to " that Levia- 
than which God hath made to play therein." In " this 
great and wide sea are things creeping innumerable, both 
small and great beasts." Yet He, who hath made them 
all, even there openeth his hand and satisficth the desires 
of all. Wonderful is it, that, of these "creatures innu- 
merable," each one finds its food in some other, and, in its 
turn, serves some other for food ; and that this great work 
of destruction and reproduction goes on in an unbroken 
circle from age to age, in the deep silence of those still 
deeper waters where the power of man is neither felt nor 
feared ! 

What a wonder, too, is that line of phosphoric light, 
which, in the darkest night, streams along the way of a 
ship in the midst of the sea ! What is it that gives out 
this fire, which, like that of love, " many waters cannot 
quench, neither can the floods drown it ?" Theorists 
may speculate, naturalists may examine, chemists may- 
analyze : but none of them can explain ; and all agree in 
this, that it is a wonder, a mystery, a marvel. A light 
that only motion kindles ! a fire that burns nothing ! a 
fire, too, seen, not in a bush on Horeb, which is not burn- 
ed, but in the deep waters of the ocean that cannot be ! 
Is not this a wonder 1 

And, if that path of light is a wonder, which streams 
back from the rudder of a ship, is not that ship itself a 
wonder 1 That a fabric so gigantic as a first-rate ship, of 
traffic or of war, framed of ponderous timbers, compacted 
with bolts and bands of still more ponderous iron, holding 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

in its bosom masses of merchandise, under whose weight 
strong cars have groaned, and paved streets have trem- 
bled, or bearing on its decks hosts of armed men, with 
the thundering armament of a nation, — that a fabric thus 
framed and thus freighted, should float in a fluid, into which, 
if a man fall, he sinks and is lost, is in itself a wonder. 
But, that such a fabric should traverse oceans, struggling 
on amid the strife of seas and storms, that it should hold 
on its way like " a thing of life," nay, like a thing of in- 
tellect, a being endued with courage, and stimulated by a 
high purpose, a traveller that has seen the end of his voy- 
age from the beginning, that goes forth upon it without 
fear, and completes it as with the feeling of a triumph, is, 
as it seems to me, a greater wonder still. 

Let me ask you to stand, as you perhaps have stood, 
upon the deck of such a ship, 

" In the dead waist and middle of the night," 

now in the strong light of the moon, as it looks down upon 
you, between the swelling sails, or now in the deep shadow 
that the sails throw over you. Hear the majestic thing 
that bears you, breasting and breaking through the waves 
that oppose themselves to her march ! She is moving on 
alone, on the top of the world, and through the dread soli- 
tude of the sea. Nothing is heard, save, perhaps, the 
falling back of a wave, that has been showing its white 
crest in the moon, or, as your ship is ploughing her way, the 
rushing of the water along her sides. Yet she seems to 
care for all that she contains, and to watch, while they 
sleep as sweetly in her bosom as in their own beds at 
home ; and, though she sees no convoy to guard her, and 
no torch-bearer to guide her, she seems as conscious that 
she is safe, as she is confident that she is going right. Is 
not all this a wonder ? 

But there is at hand another wonder yet, the mysterious 
but faithful index that points the seaman's way through 
the great waters. The magnetic needle, what a wonder, 
what a miracle is that ! By night as truly as by day, in 
storm as fearlessly as in calm, in winter and in summer 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

alike, this incorruptible and faithful friend may be con- 
sulted with more confidence than any human counsellor, 
than any pagan oracle, by him who is doubtful of his 
course ; and, under its guidance the wayfarer of the deeps, 
though a fool, need not err therein. 

What does not the civilized world owe to this single 
wonder ! We may now truly say, in the words of the 
Wisdom of Solomon, It is " thy Providence, O Father, 
that hath made a way in the sea, and a safe path 
through the waves, showing that thou canst save from all 
danger, yea, though a man went to sea without art." It 
is this little piece of iron, imbued with this mysterious 
power, that binds together the nations of the earth more 
firmly than they could be bound " by bars of brass and 
ribs of steel ;" for it shows them their common depend- 
ence, and it unites them by the ties of mutual benefits. 
It is this, that, under the fostering care of commerce, has 
borne the Gospel to the distant isles of the sea, and caused 
the day-star of an immortal hope to rise upon the hearts 
of millions, who had before been sitting in darkness, as 
deep and more dreadful than the shadow of death. 

PlERPONT, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

General View of the Ocean 11 

Apostrophe to the Ocean 14 

Extent of the Ocean 17 

Saltness of the Ocean 21 

The Color of the Ocean 27 

Mysterious Music of the Ocean 29 

Meditation upon the Sea 31 

Tides and Currents of the Ocean 35 

The Deluge 45 

Whirlpools 50 

Fishes 53 

Marine Remains 61 

Sponge 65 

General Account of Springs 66 

General Description of Rivers 70 

The Nile 75 

The Ganges 79 

The River Jordan 82 

Coral Formations 88 

The Art of Diving 94 

Formation of Ice 104 

Remarkable Icebergs 110 

The Roar of the Sea 113 

Works of the Coral Insect 114 

A Funeral at Sea 119 

Description of the Shark 121 

Description of the Whale 125 

The Whale Fishery 127 

The Falls of Niagara 132 

Roaring Cascade, Jamaica 141 

The Falls of Montmorency 143 



10 CONTENTS. 

Faoi. 

Cataract of the Nile 150 

Tallulah Falls 151 

Cataract of the Mender 155 

Cataract in Dalmatia 157 

Passaic Falls 158 

Meeting of the Waters 159 

The Crocodile 161 

An Account of the Seal 166 

A Night at Sea 169 

A Fire at Sea 173 

The Hot Springs of Iceland 178 

Lake Baikal 186 

Wigan's Well 190 

Pitch Lake of Trinidad 192 

Reciprocating Fountains 195 

Broseley Spring 197 

Mud Lake of Java 198 

The Fountain of Vaucluse 202 

Fountain of Peroul 203 

Fountain of Plinania 204 

Cascade in the Gardens at Chatsworth 204 

The Fall of Staubbach 205 

Remarkable Cascades in Switzerland 206 

Lake Vetter 207 

Cirenitz Lake 210 

Of the Bottom of the Sea 212 

Formation of Pearls 215 

The Pearl Fishery 218 

The Sea-Serpent 228 

Animal Life in the Sea 241 

Pressure of the Sea 245 

The Frozen Crew , 246 

Electric Eel, or Gymnotus , 249 



¥ONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE OCEAN. 

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 

Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, 
Calm or convulsed — in breeze, or gale, or storm, 

Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 

Darts heaving ; — boundless, endless, and sublime — 
The image of Eternity — the throne 

Of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime 
The monsters of the deep are made ; each zone 
Obeys thee ; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. 

Byron. 

Although the ocean, properly speaking, is 
but one extensive sheet of water, continued 
over every part of the globe without interrup- 
tion ; and although no part of it is divided from 
the rest, yet geographers have distinguished 
it by different names ; as the Atlantic, or 
Western ocean, the Northern, Southern, Pacific, 
Indian, and German oceans. # 

In this vast receptacle, almost all the rivers 
of the earth ultimately terminate. And yet 
these vast and inexhaustible supplies do not 
seem to increase its stores ; for it is neither 
apparently swelled by their tribute, nor dimin- 
ished by their failure ; it continues constantly 



12 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the same. Indeed, the quantity of water of all 
the rivers and lakes in the world is nothing, 
compared to that contained in this prodigious 
reservoir. And some natural philosophers 
have carried their ideas on this subject so far, 
as to assert, in consequence of certain calcula- 
tions, that if the bed of the sea were empty, 
all the rivers of the world flowing into it with 
a continuance of their present stores, would 
take up at least eight hundred years to nil it 
again to its present height. 

Thus great is the assemblage of waters dif- 
fused round our habitable globe ; and yet, im- 
measurable as it seems, it is rendered subser- 
vient principally to the necessities and conve- 
niences of so little a being as man. Some 
have perceived so much analogy to man m 
the formation of the ocean, that they have not 
hesitated to assert it was made for him alone. 
This has been denied by others ; and a variety 
of arguments have been adduced on both sides, 
into which I do not think it necessary to enter 
here ; for, of this we are certain, that the great 
Creator has endowed us with abilities to turn 
this great extent of waters to our own advan- 
tage. He has made these things, perhaps, ior 
other uses; but he has given us faculties to 
connect them to our own. This much-agitated 
question, therefore, seems to terminate here ; 
we shall never know whether the things ol 
this world were made for our use, but we very 
well know that we were made to enjoy them. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 13 

Let us then boldly affirm, that the earth and 
all its wonders are ours ; since we are fur- 
nished with powers to force them into our ser- 
vice. 

Man is the lord of the whole sublunary cre- 
ation ; the howling savage, the winding ser- 
pent, with all the untameable and rebellious 
offspring of nature, are destroyed in the con- 
test, or driven at a distance from his habita- 
tions. The extensive and tempestuous ocean, 
instead of dividing or limiting his powder, only 
serves to assist his industry, and enlarge the 
sphere of his enjoyments. Its billows and its 
monsters, instead of presenting a scene of ter- 
ror, serve only to excite and invigorate the 
courage of this intrepid little being ; and the 
greatest danger that man now fears from the 
deep, is from his fellow-creatures. Indeed, if 
we consider the human race as nature has 
formed them, very little of the habitable globe 
seems to be made for them. But when they 
are considered as accumulating the wisdom 
of ages, in commanding the earth, there is no- 
thing so great, nor so terrible. What a poor 
contemptible being is the naked savage, stand- 
ing on the beach of the ocean, and trembling 
at its tumults ! How incapable is he of con- 
verting its terrors into benefits ; or of saying, 
" Behold an element made solely for my enjoy- 
ment !" He considers it as an angry deity, 
and pays it the homage of submission. But it 
is very different when he has exercised his 

a 



14 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

mental "powers, when he has learned to find 
his own superiority, and to make it subservient 
to his commands. It is then that his dignity- 
begins to appear, and that the true Deity is 
adored, for having been mindful of man, for 
having given him the earth for his habitation, 
and the sea for his inheritance. 



APOSTROPHE TO THE OCEAN. 

Hail ! thou inexhaustible source of wonder 
and contemplation ! Hail ! thou multitudi- 
nous ocean ! whose waves chase one another 
down like the generations of men, and after a 
momentary space are immerged forever in 
oblivion ! Thy fluctuating waters wash the 
varied shores of the world, and while they dis- 
join nations, whom a nearer connection would 
involve in eternal war, they circulate their 
arts and their labors, and give health and 
plenty to mankind. How glorious ! how aw- 
ful are the scenes thou displayest ! Whether 
we view thee when every wind is hushed, — 
when the morning sun, as now, silvers the 
level line of the horizon, or when its evening 
track is marked with flaming gold, thy unrip- 
pled bosom reflects the radiance of the over- 
arching heavens ! or whether we behold thee 
in thy terrors, when the black tempest sweeps 
thy swelling billows, and the boiling surge 
mixes with the clouds, — when death rides the 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 1$ 

.Storm, and humanity drops a fruitless tear for 
the toiling mariner, whose heart is sinking 
with dismay. And yet, mighty deep, 'tis thy 
surface alone we view. Who can penetrate 
the secrets of thy w r ide domain ? what eye can 
visit thy immense rocks and caverns, that teem 
with life and vegetation ; or search out the 
myriads of objects, whose beauties lie scatter- 
ed over thy dread abyss ? The mind staggers 
with the immensity of its conceptions ; and 
when she contemplates the flux and reflux of 
thy tides, which from the beginning of the 
world were never known to err, how does she 
shrink at the idea of that Divine Power, which 
originally laid thy foundations so sure, and 
whose omnipotent voice hath fixed the limits 
where thy proud waves shall be stayed ! 



DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. 
As to the bottom of the basin of the sea, it 
seems to have inequalities similar to those 
which the surface of continents exhibits ; if it 
were dried up, it would present mountains, 
valleys, and plains. It is, moreover, inhabited 
almost throughout its whole extent by an im- 
mense quantity of testaceous animals, or cov- 
ered with sand and gravel. It was thus that 
Donati found the bottom of the Adriatic Sea ; 
the bed of testaceous animals there, according 
to him, is several hundred feet in thickness. 
The celebrated diver, Pescecola, whom the 



16 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

Emperor Frederick II. employed to descend 
into the strait of Messina, saw there, with hor- 
ror, enormous polypi attached to the rocks, the 
arms of which, being several yards long, were 
more than sufficient to strangle a man. In a 
great many places, the madrepores form a kind 
of petrified forest fixed at the bottom of the 
sea, and frequently too, this bottom plainly 
presents different layers of rocks and earth. 

The granite rises up in sharp-pointed masses. 
Near Marseilles, marble is dug up from a sub- 
marine quarry. There are also bituminous 
springs, and even springs of fresh water, that 
spout up from the depths of the ocean ; and 
in the Gulf of Spezia, a great spout or foun- 
tain of fresh water is seen to rise like a liquid 
hill. Similar springs furnish the inhabitants 
of the town of Aradus with their ordinary bev- 
erage. 

On the southern coast of Cuba, to the south- 
west of the port of Batabano, in the bay of 
Xagua, at two or three miles from the land, 
springs of freshwater gush up with such force 
in the midst of the salt, that small boats can- 
not approach them with safety ; the deeper 
you draw the water the fresher you find it. It 
has been observed, that in the neighborhood 
of steep coasts, the bottom of the sea also sinks 
down suddenly to a considerable depth, whilst 
near a low coast, and one of gentle declivity, 
it is only gradually that the sea deepens. 

There are some places in the sea where no 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN". 17 

bottom has yet been found. But we must not 
conclude that the sea is really bottomless ; an 
idea which, if not absurd, is at least by no 
means conformable to the analogies of natural 
science. The mountains of continents seem to 
correspond with what are called the abysses 
of the sea ; but now the highest mountains do 
not rise to 20,000 feet. It is true, that they 
have been wasted down and lessened by the 
action of the elements ; it may, therefore, be 
reasonably concluded, that the sea is not be- 
yond 30,000 feet in depth; but it is impossible 
to find the bottom even at one third of this 
depth with our little instruments. The great- 
est depth that has been tried to be measured, 
is that found in the Northern 'Ocean by Lord 
Mulgrave ; he heaved a very heavy sounding 
lead, and gave out along with it cable-rope to 
the length of 4680 feet, without finding the 
bottom. 



EXTENT OF THE OCEAN. 

Buffon supposed that the surface of our 
globe is equally divided between land and 
water, and has accordingly calculated the su- 
perficies of the sea to be 85,490,506 square 
miles. But it is well known that the ocean 
covers much more than half of the earth's sur- 
face. Buffon believed the existence of a vast 
southern continent, which Captain Cook has 
2* 



{8 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

shown to be visionary. It was this circum- 
stance which misled him. According to the 
most accurate observations hitherto made, the 
surface of the sea is to that of the land as 
three to one ; the ocean, therefore, extends over 
128,235,759 square miles, supposing the super- 
ficies of the whole globe to be 180,981,012 
square miles. 

To ascertain the depth of the sea is still 
more difficult than its superficies ; both on ac- 
count of the numerous experiments which it 
would be necessary to make, and the want of 
proper instruments for that purpose. Beyond 
a certain depth the sea has hitherto been found 
unfathomable ; and though several very in- 
genious methods have been contrived to obvi- 
ate this difficulty, none of them has completely 
answered the purpose. We know in general 
that the depth of the sea increases gradually 
as we leave the shore ; but if this continued 
beyond a certain distance, the depth in the 
middle of the ocean would be prodigious. In- 
deed, the numerous islands everywhere scat- 
tered in the sea demonstrate the contrary, by 
showing us that the bottom of the water is 
unequal, like the land ; and that, so far from 
uniformly sinking, it sometimes rises into lofty 
mountains. 

If the depth of the sea is in proportion to the 
elevation of the land, as has generally been 
supposed, its greatest depth will not exceed 
five or six miles, for there is no mountain six 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 19 

miles perpendicular above the level of the sea. 
The sea has never been actually sounded to a 
greater depth than a mile and 66 feet ; every 
thing beyond that therefore rests entirely upon 
conjecture and analogical reasoning, which 
ought never to be admitted to determine a 
single point that can be ascertained by experi- 
ment, because, when admitted, they have too 
often led to false conclusions. Along the 
coasts, where the depth of the sea is in general 
well known, it has alwaj's been found propor- 
tioned to the height of the shore : when the 
coast is high and mountainous, the sea that 
washes it is deep ; when, on the contrary, the 
coast is low, the water is shallow. Whether 
this analogy holds at a distance from the shore, 
experiments alone can determine. 

To calculate the water contained in the sea, 
while its depth is unknown, is impossible. But 
if we suppose with Buffon that its medium 
depth is the fourth part of a mile, the ocean, 
if its superficies is 128,235,759 square miles, 
will contain 32,058,939.75 cubic miles of w T ater. 

Let us now endeavor to compute the quan- 
tity of water which is constantly discharged 
into the sea. For this purpose let us take a 
river whose velocity and quantity of w r ater are 
known : the Po, for instance, which, according 
to Riccoli, is 1000 feet (or 100 perches Bou- 
logne) broad, ten feet deep, and runs at the 
rate of four miles in an hour ; consequently 
that river discharges into the sea 200,000 cubic 



20 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

perches of water in an hour, or 4,800,000 in a 
day. A cubic mile contains 125,000,000 cubic 
perches, the Po therefore will take 26 days to 
discharge a cubic mile of water into the sea. 

Let us now suppose, what is not perhaps 
very far from the truth, that the quantity of 
water which the sea receives from the rivers 
in any country is proportioned to the extent of 
that country. The Po, from its origin to its 
mouth, traverses a country 380 miles long, and 
the rivers which fall into it on every side rise 
from sources about 60 miles distant from it. 
The Po, therefore, and the rivers which it re- 
ceives, water a country of 45,600 square miles. 
Now, since the land on our globe amounts to 
42,745,253 square miles, it follows, from our 
supposition, that the quantity of water dis- 
charged by all the rivers in the world in one 
day is 36 cubic miles. If, therefore, the sea 
contains 32,058,939 cubic miles of water, it 
would take all the rivers in the world 2439 
years to discharge an equal quantity. 

It may seem surprising that the sea, since it 
is continually receiving such an immense sup- 
ply of water, does not visibly increase, and at 
last cover the whole earth. But our surprise 
will cease, if we consider that the rivers them- 
selves are supplied from the sea, and that they 
do nothing more than carry back those waters 
which the ocean is continually lavishing upon 
the earth. Dr. Halley has demonstrated that 
the vapors raised from the sea and transported 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAX. 21 

upon land are sufficient to maintain all the 
rivers in the world. The simplicity of this 
great process is astonishing : the sea not only 
connects distant countries, and renders it easy 
to transport the commodities of one nation to 
another, but its waters rising in the air descend 
in showers to fertilize the earth and nourish 
the vegetable kingdom, and collecting into 
rivers flow onward, bringing fertility and 
wealth and commerce along with them, and 
again return to repeat the same round. 



SALTNESS OF THE OCEAN. 

The cause of the saltness of the ocean has 
been a subject of investigation among philoso- 
phers in almost all ages, but it still remains in 
great obscurity. There can be little doubt 
that a large quantity of saline matter existed 
in this globe from the creation ; and at this 
day, we find immense beds of sal gem, or com- 
mon salt, buried in the earth, particularly at 
Cracow ; but whether these collections have 
been derived from the ocean, and deposited in 
consequence of the evaporation of its waters in 
certain circumstances ; or whether the ocean 
was itself originally fresh, and received its salt 
from collections of saline matter situated at its 
bottom, or from that brought by the influx of 
rivers, cannot now be ascertained. 

No accurate observations on the degree of 



22 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

saltness of the ocean in particular latitudes 
were made till the present century, and it is 
not possible, therefore, to ascertain what was 
the state of the sea at any considerable dis- 
tance of time, nor, consequently, whether its 
degree of saltness increases, decreases, or is 
stationary. From differences among aquatic 
animals, however, some of which seem adapted 
to salt water, and some to fresh, it is proba- 
ble that both these states of water existed 
from the creation of the world. We know, it 
is true, that some kinds of fish, as salmon, are 
capable of existing both in fresh and in salt 
water, and that habit has a powerful influence 
over all animals ; but this is not sufficient to 
refute the main fact, that some kinds of fish 
thrive only in salt water, others in fresh ; some 
in standing pools, others in rapid currents. 

Sea-water may be rendered fresh by freezing, 
which excludes or precipitates the saline par- 
ticles ; or by distillation, which leaves the salt 
in a mass at the bottom of the vessel. Upon 
these principles, a mode of obtaining a supply 
of fresh water at sea was recommended some 
years ago to the English admiralty by Dr. 
Irving. It consisted in only adapting a tin 
tube of suitable dimensions to the lid of the 
common ship's kettle, and condensing the steam 
in a hogshead which served as a receiver. By 
this mode a supply of twenty-five gallons of 
fresh water per hour might be obtained from 
the kettle of one of our ships of war. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 23 

The saline taste of sea- water is chiefly de- 
rived from common salt, which it holds in so- 
lution. Sea- water is also distinguished by a 
nauseous bitter taste, which is ascribed to the 
animal and vegetable matters which are float- 
ing in it. This taste has been considered as 
in some measure foreign to it, for it is only 
found in the water on the surface of the ocean, 
or near the shores. Sea-water, taken up at 
considerable depths, contains only saline mat- 
ters. 

Sea-water experiences great changes from 
the agitation of the waves, from the variations 
of seasons, and from the action of the currents. 
Near Walloe, in Norway, where there is a 
salt-pit, it has been remarked, that the sea- 
water taken at the surface contains one 
twenty- fourth of its weight of salt at the mo- 
ment the ice is detached, which extends thirty 
feet down ; while the salt in every other sea- 
sou is in the proportion only of one-thirtieth. 
Upon the coasts of Cumberland, in England, a 
still stronger evaporation is experienced, as 
there is generally one forty-fifth of salt in the 
sea-water, which is sometimes reduced by ex- 
cessive rains to one-fiftieth. Upon the coast 
of Malabar, the sea- water sometimes becomes 
drinkable. 

In the Sound, the waters change their weight 
and saltness with the winds and currents : 
when they come from the east the water 
weighs only TT VW more than melted snow ; 



24 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

on the contrary, when they come from the 
west, it weighs T Vllo« It i s supposed that in 
Iceland the sea is more salt during the flow 
than the ebb of the tide, while in the Gulf of 
Bothnia, it is quite the contrary ; for the in- 
habitants know by the progressive increase of 
the saltness during the ebb, the moment when 
the flow approaches. In this gulf, the saltness 
of the sea is in general greater towards the 
winter, and less towards the summer solstice, 
which unquestionably arises not only from the 
flowing of the rivers, but also from the melt- 
ing of the ice. 

The saltness of the sea seems in general to 
be less towards the poles, than under the 
equator. There are, however, exceptions in 
certain countries, and generally in all gulfs 
which receive a great many rivers. Sea- water 
is in several places less salt at the surface than 
at the bottom. In the strait of Constantino- 
ple the proportion is as 72 to 62. In the Me- 
diterranean, as 32 to 29. It has been found, 
says Bergmann, that in the Oeresund, the wa- 
ter taken at the surface, and from the depth 
of 5 to 20 fathoms, was in proportion to melted 
snow-water, as 10,047, 10,060, and 10,189 to 
10,000. Water ought to be denser and heavier 
at a certain depth, and from the result of ex- 
periments, in which a pressure has been ap- 
plied to it, equal to what it sustains 1,800 
fathoms from the surface, it has been com- 
puted that at that depth it should be com- 



W0NDEE3 OF THE OCEAN. 25 

pressed T £o <r by its own weight. Sea-water, 
by acquiring additional saltness, seems at a 
certain depth to lose its bitterness ; so, at least, 
it appears from the observations of Sparrmann, 
who took up a bottle of sea- water from the depth 
of 60 fathoms, and found it had the taste of 
fresh water, in which common salt had been 
dissolved. 

It is easier to perceive the great advantages 
resulting from the saltness of sea-water, than 
to discover its origin. Without this saltness, 
and without the agitation in which they are 
continually kept, the waters of the sea would 
become tainted, and would be infinitely less 
adapted for the motion of vessels, and proba- 
bly it is to this that many of the inhabitants 
of the ocean owe their existence. But whence 
comes this saltness 1 Is it from beds of salt 
lying at the bottom of the sea 1 These beds 
themselves appear rather to consist of depo- 
sites which the sea has formed by precipita- 
tion. Does the saltness originate from the 
corruption of river- water ? 

It seems, in fact, that the fresh water which 
is discharged into close and stagnant lakes be- 
comes corrupted, decomposed, and forms de- 
posites of salt. Now, the ocean may be con- 
sidered as a great lake, the common reservoir 
of all terrestrial waters. But in this case, it is 
said, that the saltness should increase from 
day to day. Halley, who broached this opin- 
ion, wishes that experiments were made, which 
3 



26 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

in future ages might conduce to throw light 
on the subject. 

Several modern philosophers consider the 
sea as the residuum of a primitive fluid, which 
must have held in solution all the substances 
of which the globe is composed ; that these 
mother waters having deposited all the earthy, 
acid, and metallic principles with which they 
were impregnated, there remains in their re- 
siduum (which is the present sea) some of 
these elementary principles too intimately 
combined with water to escape from it ; and 
with respect to the bitterness of sea-waters, 
as it diminishes in proportion to the depth, it 
can arise only from the great quantity of de- 
composed and putrifying animal and vegeta- 
ble substances which float in the ocean, and 
which the running waters never cease to bring 
into it. 

As the sea covers so great a portion of the 
globe, we should no doubt, by exploring its 
bottom, discover a vast number of interesting 
particulars. Unfortunately, in the greater 
part of the ocean, this has hitherto been im- 
possible. Part, however, has been examined ; 
and the discoveries which this examination 
has produced may enable us to form some idea 
at least of the whole. The bottom of the sea, 
as might have been conjectured indeed before- 
hand, bears a great resemblance to the surface 
of the dry land, being, like it, full of plains, 
rocks, caverns, and mountains ; some of which 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 27 

are abrupt and almost perpendicular, while 
others rise with a gentle declivity, and some- 
times tower above the water and form islands. 
Neither do the materials differ which com- 
pose the bottom of the sea and the basis of the 
dry land. If we dig to a considerable depth 
in any part of the earth, we uniformly meet, 
with rock ; the same thing holds in the sea. 
The strata too are of the same kind, disposed 
in the same manner, and form indeed but one 
whole. The same kind of mineral and bitu- 
minous substances are also found interspersed 
with these strata ; and it is to them probably 
that the sea is indebted for its bitter taste. 
Over these natural and original strata an ar- 
tificial bed has pretty generally been formed, 
composed of different materials in different 
places. It consists frequently of muddy tar- 
tareous substances firmly cemented together, 
sometimes of shells or coral reduced to pow- 
der, and near the mouths of rivers it is gene-* 
rally composed of fine sand or gravel. 



THE COLOR OF THE OCEAN. 

The color of the sea varies much in appear- 
ance, but it is generally of a deep bluish green, 
which becomes clearer towards the coasts. This 
apparent color of the sea seems to arise entirely 
from the same causes w r hich impart a blue shade 
to distant mountains, and which give the atmo- 



28 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

sphere its azure hue. The rays of blue light, 
being the most refrangible, pass in the greatest 
quantity through the aquatic fluid, which, in 
proportion to its density and depth, makes them 
undergo a strong refraction. 

The other shades in the color of sea-water 
depend on causes which are local and some- 
times illusory. It is said that the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, in its upper part, has sometimes a 
purple tint. In the Gulf of Guinea, the sea is 
w r hite, and around the Maldive islands black. 
The Vermeille, or Vermilion sea, near Califor- 
nia, has received its name from the red color 
which it often assumes. The same phenome- 
non was observed at the mouth of the river 
Plata, by Magellan, and also in other places. 

It is not impossible that a great number of 
certain insects may, for some time, give a red- 
dish or whitish tint to an expanse of sea. The 
infusion of certain earthy or mineral substan- 
ces, the nature of the soil, and other causes, 
may produce these appearances. 

The green and yellow shades of the sea arise 
from marine vegetables. In some places, these 
vegetables have been observed to rise to the 
surface of the water, and cover it entirely, as 
between the Canary and Cape de Verde Islands, 
in that part of the sea which the Dutch call 
Kroos-zee, and the Portuguese Mare di Sar- 
gasso. This marine vegetation presents, upon 
a large scale, phenomena similar to the efflo- 
rescence upon lakes. In the lakes, there are 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 29 

delicate water mosses covered with hair, which 
rise during the day to the surface of the water, 
and often sink beneath it during the night. 

The light, or sparkling of the sea, is a mag- 
nificent and imposing spectacle. Sometimes 
the vessel, while ploughing her way through 
the billows, appears to mark out a furrow of 
fire ; each stroke of the oar emits a light, some- 
times brilliant and dazzling, at other times 
tranquil and pearly. These moveable lights 
are grouped in endless varieties. Here thou- 
sands of luminous points, like little stars, ap- 
pear floating on the surface, and then, multi- 
plying together, form one vast sheet of light. 
There the scene becomes more tumultuous, the 
refulgent waves heave up, roll, and break in 
shining foam. At other times, we see large 
sparkling bodies resembling the forms of fishes, 
pursuing each other, disappearing, and bursting 
forth anew. 



MYSTERIOUS MUSIC OF THE OCEAN. 

Lonely and wild it rose, 
That strain of solemn music from the sea, 
As though the bright air trembled to disclose 

A.n ocean mystery. 

Again a low, sweet tone, 
Fainting in murmurs on the listening day, 
Just bade the excited thought its presence own, 

Then died away. 

' 3* 



30 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 

Once more the gush of sound, 
Struggling and swelling from the heaving plain, 
Thrill J d a rich peal triumphantly around, 

And fled again. 

O boundless deep ! we know 
Thou hast strange wonders in thy gloom conceal'd ; 
Gems, flashing gems, from whose unearthly glow 

Sunlight is seal'd. 

And an eternal spring 
Showers her rich colors with unsparing hand 
Where coral trees their graceful branches fling 

O'er golden sand. 

But tell, O restless main! 
Who are the dwellers in thy world beneath, 
That thus the watery realm cannot contain 

The joy they breathe ? 

Emblem of glorious might ! 
Are thy wild children, like thyself, array'd 
Strong in immortal and uncheck'd delight 

Which cannot fade ? 

Or to mankind allied, 
Toiling with wo, and passions' fiery sting ; 
Like their own home, where storms or peace preside, 

As the winds bring ? 

Alas for human thought ! 
How does it flee existence worn and old, 
To win companionship with beings wrought 

Of finer mould ! 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 31 

'Tis vain ! the reckless waves 
Join with loud revel the dim ages flown, 
But keep each secret of their hidden caves 

Dark and unknown ! 



MEDITATION UPON THE SEA. 

" The sea is his, and he made it," cries the 
Psalmist of Israel, in one of those bursts of en- 
thusiasm and devotion in which he so often 
expresses the whole of a vast subject by a few 
simple words. Whose else, indeed, could it 
be, and by whom else could it have been 
made ? Who else can heave its tides, and 
appoint its bounds ? Who else can urge its 
mighty waves to madness, with the breath and 
the wings of a tempest ; and then speak to it 
again in a master's accents, and bid it be still ? 

Who else could have peopled it with its 
countless inhabitants, and caused it to bring 
forth its various productions, and filled it from 
its deepest bed to its expanded surface, filled 
it from its centre to its remotest shores, filled 
it to the brim, with beauty and mystery and 
power ? Majestic ocean ! Glorious sea ! No 
created being rules thee or made thee. Thou 
nearest but one voice, and that is the Lord's ; 
thou obeyest but one arm, and that is the Al- 
mighty's. The ownership and the workman- 
ship are God's ; thou art his, and he made thee. 

" The sea is his, and he made it." Its ma- 






32 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

jesty is of God. What is there more sublime 
than the trackless, desert, all-surrounding, un- 
fathomable sea ? What is there more peace- 
fully sublime, than the calm, gently-heaving, 
silent sea 1 What is there more terribly sub- 
lime than the angry, dashing, foaming sea ? 
Power — resistless, overwhelming power — is its 
attribute and its expression, whether in the 
careless, conscious grandeur of its deep rest, or 
the wild tumult of its excited wrath. 

It is awful when its crested waves rise up 
to make a compact with the black clouds, and 
the howling winds, and the thunder, and the 
thunderbolt, and they sweep on in the joy of 
their dreadful alliance to do the Almighty's 
bidding. And it is awful too, when it stretches 
its broad level out to meet in quiet union the 
bended sky, and show in the line of meeting, 
the vast rotundity of the world. 

There is majesty in its wide expanse, sep- 
arating and enclosing the great continents of 
the earth, occupying two-thirds of the whole 
surface of the globe, penetrating the land with 
its bays and secondary seas, and receiving the 
constantly pouring tribute of every river, of 
every shore, There is majesty in its fulness, 
never diminishing and never increasing. There 
is majesty in its integrity, for the whole of its 
vast substance is uniform ; in its local unity, 
for there is but one ocean, and the inhabitants 
of any one maritime spot may visit the inhabit- 
ants of any other in the wide world. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 33 

Its depth is sublime ; who can sound it ? Its 
strength is sublime ; what fabric of man can 
resist it ? Its voice is sublime, whether in the 
prolonged sound of its ripple, or the stern music 
of its roar ; whether it utters its hollow and 
melancholy tones within a labyrinth of wave- 
worn caves ; or thunders at the base of some 
huge promontory ; or beats against a toiling ves- 
sel's sides, lulling the voyager to rest with the 
strains of its wild monotony; or dies away 
with the calm and dying twilight, in gentle 
murmurs on some sheltered shore. 

There is mystery in the sea. There is mys- 
tery in its depths. It is unfathomed, and per- 
haps unfathomable. Who can tell, who shall 
know, how near its pits run down to the cen- 
tral core of the world ? Who can tell what 
wells, what fountains are there, to which the 
fountains of the earth are, in comparison, but 
drops ? Who shall say whence the ocean de- 
rives those inexhaustible supplies of salt, which 
so impregnate its waters, that all the rivers of 
the earth pouring into it from the time of the 
creation, have not been able to freshen them ? 

What undescribed monsters, what unim- 
aginable shapes, may be roving in the pro- 
foundest places of the sea, never seeking, and 
perhaps from their nature unable to seek, the 
upper waters, and expose themselves to the 
gaze of man ? What glittering riches, what 
heaps of gold, what stores of gems, there must 
be scattered in lavish profusion on the ocean's 



34 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

lowest bed ! What spoils from all climates, 
what works of art from all lands have been 
ingulfed by the insatiable and reckless waves ! 
"Who shall go down to examine and reclaim 
this uncounted and idle wealth ? Who bears 
the keys of the deep ? 

And oh ! yet more afflicting to the heart, and 
mysterious to the mind, what companies of 
human beings are locked up in that wide, wel- 
tering, unsearchable grave of the sea ! Where 
are the bodies of those lost ones, over whom 
the melancholy waves alone have been chant- 
ing requiem ? What shrouds were wrapped 
round the limbs of beauty and of manhood, 
and of placid infancy, when they were laid on 
the dark floor of that secret tomb ? Where are 
the bones, the relics of the brave and fearful, 
the good and the bad, the parent, the child, the 
wife, the husband, the brother, and sister, and 
lover, which have been tossed and scattered 
and buried by the washing, wasting, wander- 
ing sea ? 

The journeying winds may sigh, as year 
after year they pass over their beds. The soli- 
tary rain-cloud may weep in darkness over 
the mingled remains which lie strewed in that 
unwonted cemetery. But who shall tell the 
bereaved to what spot their affections may 
cling ? And where shall human tears be shed 
throughout that solemn sepulchre ? It is mys- 
tery all ! 

When shall it be resolved ? Who shall find 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 35 

it out ? Who but He to whom the wildest 
waves listen reverently, and to whom all na- 
ture bows ; He who shall one day speak and 
be heard in ocean's profoundest caves ; to whom 
the deep, even the lowest deep, shall give up 
all its dead — when the sun shall sicken, and 
the earth and the isles shall languish, and the 
heavens be rolled together like a scroll, and 
there shall be " no more sea." 



TIDES AND CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 

Among the most wonderful phenomena of 
nature may be reckoned the tides of the sea. 
They were but little understood by the an- 
cients, although Pliny, Ptolemy, and Macro- 
bius, were of opinion that they were influenced 
by the sun and moon, The former expressly 
says, that the cause of the ebb and flow is in 
the sun, which attracts the waters of the 
ocean ; and he adds, that the waters rise in 
proportion to the proximity of the moon to the 
earth. 

Among the phenomena of the tides, one of 
the most singular is the bore, peculiar to 
several rivers : it is ascribed to the waters, 
which were before expansive, being suddenly 
pent up and confined within a narrow space. 
This bore, or impetuous rush of waters, ac- 
companies the first flowing of the tide in the 
Perret, in Somersetshire, and in the Seine, in 



36 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

France. It is also one of the peculiarities of 
the Severn, the most rapid river in England. 

One of the greatest known tides is that of 
the Bristol Channel, which sometimes flows 
upwards of forty feet. At the mouth of the 
river Indus, the water rises thirty feet. The 
tides are also remarkably high on the coasts 
of Malay, in the Straits of Sunda, in the Red 
Sea, at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, 
along the coasts of China and Japan, at Pana- 
ma, and in the Gulf of Bengal. The most re- 
markable tides, however, are those at Batsha, 
in the kingdom of Tonquin, in 20° 50' north 
latitude. In that port, the sea ebbs and flows 
once only in 24 hours, while in all other places 
there are two tides within that space. 

What is still more extraordinary, twice in 
each month, when the moon is near the equi- 
noctial, there is not any tide, the water being 
for some time quite stagnant. These, with 
other anomalies of the tides there, Sir Isaac 
Newton, with peculiar sagacity, ascertained 
to arise from the concurrence of two tides, 
one from the South Sea, and the other from 
the Indian Ocean. Of each of these two tides, 
there come successively two every day ; two 
at one time greater, and two at another which 
are less. The time between the arrival of the 
two greater, was considered by him as high 
• tide ; that between the two less, as ebb. In 
short, with these simple facts in his possession, 
that great mathematician solved every appear- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 37 

ance, and so established his theory as to si- 
lence every opposer. 

Besides the common and periodical tides, a 
variety of local currents are met with in dif- 
ferent seas, on different parts of the ocean, and 
for the greater part at an inconsiderable dis- 
tance from land. They have been usually as- 
cribed to particular winds ; but their origin is 
not easy to trace, as they have been occasion- 
ally found beneath the surface of the water, 
running in a contrary direction to the stratum 
above, and cannot, therefore, have been owing 
to wands or monsoons. These particular cur- 
rents have been ascribed to the immense 
masses of polar ice, which produce a greater 
degree of cold in the under than in the upper 
stratum of waters ; and it has been suspected 
that there is an under current of cold water 
flowing perpetually from the poles towards 
the equator, even where the w-ater above 
flows towards the poles. The great inferiority 
of temperature, which is frequently found in 
deep and superficial soundings of the same 
spade of water, is thus accounted for. 

The most extraordinary current is that of 
the Gulf of Florida, usually called the " Gulf 
Stream," which sets along the coast of North 
America to the northward and eastward, and 
flows with an uninterrupted rapidity. It is as- 
cribed to the trade winds, which, blowing from 
the eastern quarter into the great Mexican 
gulf, cause there an accumulation above the 
4 



38 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

common level of the sea. The water, there- 
fore, constantly runs out by the channel where 
it finds the least resistance, that is, through 
the Gulf of Florida, with such force as to con- 
tinue a distinct stream to a very great distance. 
A proof of its having thus originated is, that 
the water in the Gulf Stream has been found 
to have retained a great portion of the heat it 
had acquired in the torrid zone. 

A very singular upper current often prevails 
to the westward of Scilly, and is highly dan- 
gerous to ships which approach the British 
Channel. Currents of this description are, 
however, more frequently met with about the 
Straits of Gibraltar, and near the West India 
islands, the coasts of which are so subject to 
counter tides, or extraordinary currents, that 
it is often dangerous for boats to land. They 
proceed to the westward, along the coasts of 
Yucatan and Mexico, and, running round into 
the gulf, return into the great ocean, by the 
Straits of Bahama, along the coasts of Florida, 
in order to pursue, in the north, the course or- 
dained them by the great Author of nature. 

In this course the waters run with an extra- 
ordinary rapidity, passing between the great 
and small American islands in the great deeps, 
by an almost even and imperceptible motion. 
Against the shores and coasts of these islands, 
which form an Archipelago, they are, how- 
ever, very sensible and dangerous, interrupt- 
ing the navigation, and rendering it scarcely 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 39 

possible to stem them in proceeding to the 
eastward. 

Besides these regular currents, there are 
others, called " counter tides," which are ob- 
servable on the sea-coasts and shores. In 
places where these flow, the sea rises in an 
extraordinary manner, becoming very furious 
without any apparent cause, and without being 
moved by any wind. The waves rise and 
open very high, breaking on the shore with 
such violence, that it is impossible for vessels 
to land. These counter tides are chiefly as- 
cribed to the pressure of the heavy black clouds 
which are occasionally seen to hang over an 
island, or over the sea. 

The currents of the ocean, though exceed- 
ingly diversified both in velocity and direction, 
appear to result from the operation of two 
great causes, the rotation of the earth on its 
axis, and the inequality of the temperature. 
To these may be added the attractive influence 
of the sun and moon, which, by continually 
disturbing the equilibrium of the waters of 
the ocean, gives rise daily to a great variety 
of partial currents, which can only be thorough- 
ly explained by an attentive examination of 
the local circumstances by which they are 
modified. 

By the daily rotation of the earth on its axis, 
the equatorial parts of the globe are carried 
from west to east at the rate of upwards of a 
thousand miles per hour. The waters of the 



40 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

ocean are not allowed to partake of the whole 
of this velocity, on account of their mobility, 
and the attraction of the two great luminaries, 
which, incessantly acting on their particles, 
prevents them from acquiring that stable con- 
dition of revolution, which they must other- 
wise have attained. Hence the solid parts of 
the globe being carried faster to the eastward 
than the waters of the ocean, the latter appear 
to have a motion in a contrary direction ; and 
by this is produced that great equatorial cur- 
rent from east to west, which is known to pre- 
vail in the tropical regions. 

The other cause, the inequality of tempera- 
ture, gives rise to a current from the poles to- 
wards the equatorial parts, though its effects 
are neither so unequivocal, nor so extensively 
developed. The superior temperature of the 
atmosphere within the tropical zone, causes a 
much greater quantity of water to be evapo- 
rated from the surface of the ocean in that 
quarter than is subsequently restored by the 
rains and the discharge of rivers. By the at- 
mospherical currents, the water thus evapo- 
rated is incessantly transported towards the 
poles. 

During its progress, however, in these op- 
posite directions, it is gradually exposed to a 
temperature more and more reduced, by which 
it is slowly converted to the state of water ; 
and descending in the form of rain, supplies 
the various zones at a distance from the equa- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 41 

tor, with a greater quantity of moisture than 
they lose by evaporation. By this means the 
polar and temperate zones being furnished 
with a larger supply of water than is consistent 
with that form which the earth should possess, 
by the joint action of gravity and the centri- 
fugal force of revolution, a current of the su- 
perfluous water must take place from the 
poles to the equator. This current, from the 
small quantity of water by which it is deter- 
mined, is not very perceptible in the open 
ocean, but its actual existence is demonstrated 
by the floating masses of ice which are annu- 
ally transported from each of the frigid zones 
towards the tropical regions. 

The great equatorial current, to which we 
have already alluded, has even been ascribed 
entirely to the same cause. The waters flow- 
ing from the colder zones, to supply the quan- 
tity carried off by evaporation within the tro- 
pics, coming from regions where they were en- 
dowed with a smaller velocity of rotation, 
cannot, it must be admitted, suddenly acquire 
the same velocity as the more solid parts of 
the globe at the equator, and hence, like the 
great aerial fluid by which it is surrounded, 
they must appear to have a slow motion from 
east to west. That the equatorial current is 
partly owing to this, is very probable ; but it 
seems too much to ascribe it entirely to a cause 
so apparently inadequate. 

In endeavoring to trace the directions of the 
4* 



42 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

subordinate currents, produced by the equato- 
rial and polar streams, we shall begin at the 
western coast of America ; both because the 
outline which it forms is the largest in one di- 
rection, which marks the land and water on 
the surface of the globe, and because, being 
nearly at right angles to the principal current, 
it seems, on that account, a better line of re- 
ference than any other. The Pacific Ocean, 
extending with little interruption to the west- 
ward of this line, the equatorial current from 
east to west appears to prevail almost univer- 
sally over this vast expanse of water. 

Having reached, in its motion round the 
globe, the eastern coast of Asia and New Hol- 
land, its direction is considerably modified by 
the various obstacles which suddenly oppose 
its progress to the Indian Ocean. One portion 
of the water forcing its way round the south- 
ern point of New Holland, occasions the strong 
currents which have been experienced by nav- 
igators in the straits between that island and 
Van Dieman's Land ; while another portion 
of it, escaping through the various winding 
channels formed by the clustered islands be- 
tween the northern extremity of New Holland 
and the coasts of Asia, produces a great varie- 
ty of subordinate currents from the south, 
takes a northwesterly course, and proceeds to- 
wards the Gulf of Bengal. Having doubled 
Cape Comorin, it advances to the coasts of 
Africa, and sweeping along the shores of that 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 43 

continent with augmented velocity, it again 
joins the general current in the Southern At- 
lantic, and resumes its westerly course. 

In the Atlantic Ocean, the effects of the 
equatorial currents are distinctly recognised 
between the tropics : and within that range 
prevail, with very little exception, from the 
western coast of Africa, to the eastern shore 
of America. On reaching the coast of Brazil, 
it diverges, at Cape St. Augustine, into two 
streams, one of which proceeding in a south- 
west direction, runs parallel to the coast till it 
falls into the Pacific beyond Cape Horn ; the 
other, following a northwesterly course, enters 
the Caribbean Sea, and afterwards penetrates 
into the Gulf of Mexico, between Yucatan 
and the island of Cuba. The former of these 
branches being resisted by the polar currents 
from the south, occasions several opposite cur- 
rents between Sandwich Land and the island 
of Terra del Fuego. 

The other branch, which enters the Gulf of 
Mexico, conspires with the large rivers that 
pour themselves into it, to raise the waters of 
the ocean considerably above their natural 
level along the shores which oppose their pro- 
gress to the westward, in consequence of which 
they are forced to escape, with increased ve- 
locity, between Florida and Cuba. This pow- 
erful current, so well known to seamen under 
the name of the Gulf Stream, is afterwards 
compelled to flow towards the northeast by 



44 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the direction of the American coast. In its 
progress to a colder climate, it is distinguished 
from the waters of the Northern Atlantic, by 
its superior temperature and beautiful blue 
color. Its influence is even felt as far to the 
northward as Newfoundland, where it pro- 
duces, by the copious exhalations from its sur- 
face, the dense fogs w T hich generally hang over 
the surface of that inhospitable island. 

After reaching Newfoundland, however, it 
becomes more exposed to the effects of the 
polar current from the north, by which its di- 
rection is determined more and more towards 
the east, and, aided by the westerly winds 
which prevail in that latitude, it shoots across 
the Atlantic to the coast of Norway and the 
British Isles. Here it is constrained, by the 
superior influence of the polar current, to as- 
sume a direction more southerly, and after ad- 
vancing along the western shores of Europe and 
Africa, to join the great equatorial stream, pro- 
bably a little beyond the Cape de Verde Islands. 

Contiguous currents, flowing in opposite di- 
rections at the surface, are far from being of 
rare occurrence. Thus in the Kattegat, it is 
well known that one current enters the Baltic 
along the coasts of Jutland, while another 
glides out of it by the opposite shores of Swe- 
den. In like manner, a current seems to pro- 
ceed along the eastern coast of Britain, towards 
the south, while another, flowing in an oppo- 
site direction, advances along the coast of 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 45 

Holland. The existence of opposite currents 
at different depths, though less frequent, is es- 
tablished by observation. 

Even in some parts of the Caribbean Sea, 
where the equatorial current is strongly felt, it 
is affirmed that a boat may be retained in a 
fixed position by suspending from it a heavy 
body, at a depth sufficient to place it beyond 
the influence of the superficial stream. The 
stability of the boat, in: such circumstances, 
must be ascribed to the operation of a contrary 
current below, which tends to carry the im- 
mersed body in an opposite direction to that 
in wmich the boat would be carried by the sole 
action of the stream at the surface. The ed- 
dies formed by ledges of rocks, running trans- 
versely to the direction of the stream, afford a 
sufficient explanation of the cause of these op ■ 
posite currents at different depths. 



THE DELUGE. 

Deluge, in theology, signifies in general any 
great inundation ; but more particularly that 
universal flood by which the whole inhabitants 
of this globe were destroyed, except Noah and 
his family. According to the most approved 
systems of chronology, this remarkable event 
happened in the year 1656 after the creation, 
or about two thousand three hundred and forty- 
eight before the Christian era. 



46 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 

Of so general a calamity, from which only 
a single family of all who lived then on the 
face of the earth was preserved, we might 
naturally expect to find some memorials in the 
traditionary records of Pagan history, as well 
as in the sacred volume, where its peculiar 
cause, and the circumstances which attended 
it, are so distinctly and fully related. Its mag- 
nitude and singularity could scarcely fail to 
make an indelible impression on the minds of 
the survivors, which would be communicated 
from them to their children, and would not be 
easily effaced from the traditions even of their 
latest posterity. 

A deficiency in such traces of this awful 
event, though perhaps it might not serve en- 
tirely to invalidate our belief of its reality, 
would certainly tend considerably to weaken 
its claim to credibility ; it being scarcely pro- 
bable that the knowledge of it should be ut- 
terly lost to the rest of the world, and confined 
to the documents of the Jewish nation alone. 
What we might reasonably expect, has, ac- 
cordingly, been actually and completely real- 
ized. The evidence which has been brought, 
from almost every quarter of the world, to bear 
upon the reality of this event, is of the most 
conclusive and irresistible kind ; and every in- 
vestigation, whether et}-mological or historical, 
which has been made concerning heathen rites 
and traditions, has constantly added to its force, 
no less than to its extent. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 47 

Besides, however, the allusions to the del uge 
in the mythology and religious ceremonies of 
the heathen, there is a variety of traditions 
concerning it still more direct and circumstan- 
tial, the coincidence of which with the narra- 
tive of Moses, it w T ill require no common de- 
gree of skeptical hardihood to deny. These 
we shall now shortly adduce ; beginning with 
those which are more distant and obscure, and 
then stating those which are more remarkably 
and circumstantially coincident with the Mo- 
saic record. 

We are informed by one of the circumnavi- 
gators of the world, who visited the remote 
island of Otaheite, that some of the inhabitants, 
being asked concerning their origin, answered, 
that their supreme God having, a long time 
ago, been angry, dragged the earth through 
the sea, when their island was broken off and 
preserved. 

In the island of Cuba, the people are said to 
believe that " the world was once destroyed 
by water, by three persons," evidently alluding 
to the three sons of Noah. It is even related 
that they have a tradition among them, that an 
old man, knowing that the deluge was ap- 
proaching, built a large ship, and went into it 
with a great number of animals ; and that he 
sent out from the ship a crow, which did not 
immediately come back, staying to feed on the 
carcasses of dead animals, but afterwards re- 
turned with a green branch in its mouth. 



48 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

The author who gives the above account 
likewise affirms, that it was reported by the 
inhabitants of Castella del Oro, in Terra Firma, 
that during a universal deluge, one man, with 
his children, were the only persons who es- 
caped, by means of a canoe, and that from 
them the world was afterwards peopled. 

According to the Peruvians, in consequence 
of a general inundation, occasioned by violent 
and continued rains, a universal destruction 
of the human species took place, a few per- 
sons only excepted, who escaped into caves on 
the tops of the mountains, into which they had 
previously conveyed a stock of provisions, and 
a number of live animals, lest when the wa- 
ters abated, the whole race should have be- 
come extinct. Others of them affirm, that only 
six persons were saved, by means of a float or 
raft, and that from them all the inhabitants 
of the country are descended. They farther 
believe, that this event took place before 
there were any incas or kings among them, 
and when the country was extremely popu- 
lous. 

The Brazilians not only preserve the tradi- 
tion of a deluge, but believe that the whole 
race of mankind perished in it, except one man 
and his sister ; or, according to others, two 
brothers with their wives, who were preserved 
by climbing the highest trees on their loftiest 
mountains ; and who afterwards became the 
heads of two different nations. The memory 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 49 

of this event they are even said to celebrate 
in some of their religious anthems or songs. 

According to Josephus, there were a multi- 
tude of ancient authors, who concurred in as- 
serting that the world had once been destroyed 
by a flood. " This deluge," says he, " and the 
ark, are mentioned by all who have written 
Barbaric histories, one of whom is Berosus the 
Chaldean. Speaking of this event, he affirms 
that in Armenia, upon a mountain of the Cory- 
deans, part of the ship is even yet remaining. 
It is a custom to scrape from off it some of the 
bitumen with which it was covered, and to 
carry it about as a talisman against diseases. 
Jerome the Egyptian, who wrote the ancient 
history of Phenicia, and Mnaseas, and many 
others, likewise mention these events. Nico- 
laus Damascenus relates, that there is a great 
mountain in Armenia, situated above Minyas, 
which is called Baris, to which many persons 
fled at the time of the deluge, and were pre- 
served. One in particular was conveyed in 
an ark to the very summit of the mountain, 
and a considerable part of the vessel still re- 
mains. He perhaps may be the man concern- 
ing whom Moses the Jewish lawgiver wrote." 

When we thus meet with some traditions 
of a deluge in almost every country, though 
the persons saved from it are said, in those 
various accounts, to have resided in different 
districts widely separated from each other, we 
are constrained to allow that such a general 
5 



50 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

concurrence of belief could never have origi- 
nated merely from accident. While the mind 
is in this situation, scripture comes forward, 
and presenting a narrative, more simple, bet- 
ter connected, and bearing an infinitely greater 
resemblance to authentic history, than any of 
those mythological accounts which occur in 
the traditions of Paganism, immediately flashes 
a conviction upon the understanding, that this 
must be the true history of those remarkable 
facts, which other nations have handed down 
to us, only through the medium of allegory and 
fable. 

By the evidence adduced in this article, in- 
deed, the moral certainty of the Mosaic his- 
tory of the flood appears to be established on 
a basis sufficiently firm to bid defiance to the 
cavils of skepticism. " Let the ingenuity of 
unbelief first account satisfactorily for this 
universal agreement of the Pagan world ; and 
she may then, with a greater degree of plausi- 
bility, impeach the truth of the scriptural nar- 
rative of the deluge." 



WHIRLPOOLS. 



Near the coast of Norway, in about latitude 
68, is a vast whirlpool, commonly called Mael- 
strom, or Moskoestrom, from the island of 
Moskoe, and by mariners the Navel of the sea. 
Its violence exceeds that of a cataract, being 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 51 

heard at a great distance, without any inter- 
mission, except for a quarter of an hour, at the 
turn of high and low water, when its impetu- 
osity seems at a stand ; but this motion soon 
returns, and gradually increases with such a 
draught and vortex, as absorbs whatever 
comes within their sphere of action, keeping it 
for some hours under water, when the frag- 
ments shivered by the rocks appear again. 

From this circumstance several authors im- 
agine, that here is an abyss which penetrates 
the globe, issuing in some very remote parts. 
But the learned Bishop Pontoppidan observes, 
that there is no foundation for this conjecture ; 
it having no other cause than the collision of 
the waves rising and falling at the flux and 
reflux, against a ridge of rocks and shelves, 
which confine the water, so that it precipitates 
like a cataract, and thus the higher the flood 
rises, the deeper must be the fall, the natural 
result of which is a whirlpool. Mr. Ramus is 
of the same opinion, and observes, that at the 
time of flood, the streams run up the country, 
between the islands of Lofoden and Moscoe, 
with a boisterous rapidity ; but the roar of its 
impetuous ebb to the sea, is scarcely equalled 
by the loudest cataracts, the noise being heard 
at the distance of several leagues. 

The whirlpool is then of such extent and 
depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, 
it is inevitably absorbed, and dashed to pieces 
against the rocks at the bottom. But when 



52 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the stream is most boisterous, and its fury- 
heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come 
within six English miles of it ; ships, boats, 
and yachts having been carried away by not 
guarding against it, before it was too late. 

It frequently happens that even whales, 
coming too near the stream, are overpowered 
by its violence ; and then it is impossible to 
describe their bellowings in their fruitless strug- 
gles to disengage themselves. A bear once 
attempting to swim to the island of Moskoe, in 
order to prey on the sheep feeding on the island, 
afforded a similar spectacle : for the stream 
caught him, and bore him down, while he 
roared so terribly as to be heard on shore. It 
is remarkable that large firs and pine trees, 
after being absorbed by the current, rise again 
with their trunks so broken and lacerated, that 
they seem as if covered with bristles. 

The account we have of the whirlpools about 
the islands of Ferro, which belong to the crown 
of Denmark, given us by Mr. Jacobson Debes, 
provost of the churches in those islands, is also 
very extraordinary. The most dangerous is 
that which lies south of Suderoe, near a rock 
called the Monk, where several vessels have 
been swallowed up. The sea round this whirl- 
pool is eighty or ninety fathoms deep, and the 
surface of the water is smooth and serene ; but 
a little farther in, the ground lies at the depth 
of twenty-five or thirty fathoms, where the sea 
begins to rise and turn round. Within this 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 53 

the ground lies from eight to ten or twelve 
fathoms deep, in four circles ; and rises up in 
points or clifts ; which are about eight fathoms 
under water, and about twelve distant from 
each other. 

Between these circles are three channels 
from twenty-five to thirty fathoms deep, where- 
in the sea runs round ; and within every circle 
is a hole, the depth of which, in the middle, is 
about sixty fathoms. The innermost current 
turns round but slowly, but the others with 
great swiftness. On the south side of this hole 
the rock called the Monk rises ten fathoms 
above the water, and north of this are six lesser 
rocks, on the top of which, our author observes, 
the compass turns round like the whirlpool. 
Considering the danger that vessels run by ap- 
proaching this vortex, the reader may probably 
wonder how so particular a description of it 
could be taken ; but our author informs us, 
that in very calm w T eather, during the reflux 
of the sea, the inhabitants venture to fish there, 
and to climb the rocks. 



FISHES. 



Though the ocean is allowed to be the grand 
receptacle of fishes, still a great variety are to 
be found both in rivers and streams ; and many 
authors give it as a decided opinion, that the 

5* 



54 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

whole species were naturally produced from 
the sea. 

Though the wants of mankind, and the curi- 
osity of individuals, have discovered great va- 
riety in this proline race, yet their pursuits, mi- 
grations, antipathies, and pleasures, are con- 
cealed by that element in which they reside. 

Most iishes offer the same external appear- 
ance, enlarging in the middle, and tapering 
towards the ends ; and this form we endeavor 
to imitate in the construction of those vessels 
which sail upon the sea. Yet the progress of 
a machine moved forward by human contri- 
vance, is not equal to that which Nature pro- 
duces in a fish ; for they can easily outstrip 
the swiftest sailer that ever ploughed the tur- 
bulent main. 

The fins are the chief instruments in a fish's 
motion, which in some are more numerous 
than the rest : for one that is completely fitted 
for sailing is furnished with three single ones, 
and two complete pairs, and thus equipped, it 
migrates with the utmost rapidity, and in the 
course of a season will traverse three thousand 
leagues. Yet it does not always happen that 
those fish have the most rapid motion which 
are endowed with the greatest number of fins ; 
for the shark is allowed to be one of the swift- 
est swimmers, but wants the ventral or belly 
fin. These fins not only serve the animal in 
progression, but in rising, sinking, turning, and 
even leaping out of the stream. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 55 

The flying-fish frequently rises out of the 
water, and pursues its course for a hundred 
yards, until, apparently exhausted by the ex- 
ertion, it regains its vigor by sinking into the 
stream. The pectoral fins push the animal 
forward, and are placed behind the opening of 
the gills ; the ventral fins grow under the 
belly ; and the dorsal fin is situated along the 
back ; this also assists the animal in motion, 
and enables it to keep an equilibrium in the 
stream : the anal fin grows near the tail, and 
serves to keep the fish upright, or in a vertical 
state. The tail is a more powerful assistant 
than the fins, as they are all in a certain degree 
dependent upon its aid ; for whenever it wishes 
to turn, a blow from the tail sends it round ; 
and when it strikes backward and forward, it 
gives addition to its speed. 

As most animals that live upon land are 
furnished with a covering to defend them from 
the injurious change which weather might 
produce, so that numerous part of creation, 
which reside within the waters, are protected 
from their influence by a glutinous kind of 
matter that defends their bodies like a sheath ; 
beneath this, many of the species have a strong 
covering of scales, under which is found an 
oily substance, which at once adds warmth 
and vigor to its life. 

The fish, thus protected and fitted for motion, 
seems to be furnished with the means of hap- 
piness as well as quadrupeds or birds ; but upon 



56 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

a more minute examination of their faculties, 
we shall find the advantages of the latter 
greatly to be increased. The sense of touch- 
ing, which beasts and birds are known to pos- 
sess, (though not in a very great degree,) to 
the fish, covered with a coat of mail, must be 
unknown; and of the sense of smelling, which 
in beasts is allowed to be exquisite, the fish 
enjoys but a moderate share. It is true that 
all have one or more nostrils : but, as air is 
the medium through which odors necessarily 
pass, an animal residing constantly in water 
must receive every exhalation imperfect and 
faint. 

Of tasting they can make but very little dis- 
tinction, as the palate of most is bony and hard ; 
and their hearing is allowed to be extremely 
doubtful ; anatomists are of opinion that they 
cannot hear at all. 

Seeing appears the sense which they possess 
in the greatest measure ; yet those who have 
made observations on their eyes, assert that 
they all are extremely near-sighted, and can- 
not discover objects that are distantly remov- 
ed. 

From the observations of the naturalists, 
we easily discern that fishes are inferior both 
to birds and beasts ; and even their brain, that 
mansion of sensation, is extremely small when 
compared to their size. 

To preserve their own existence, and con- 
tinue it to their posterity, fills up the whole 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 57 

circle of their pursuits ; a ceaseless desire of 
food seems to be the ruling impulse, and the 
only enjoyment they are capable of in life. 
Their digestive faculties are very extraordina- 
ry, for their stomachs will soften the shells of 
the most callous fish ; and their whole lives 
are passed in a state of depredation, the larger 
of the species existing upon the small. 

Nor is the pursuit of fishes, like that of ter- 
restrial animals, confined to a single region 
of the globe ; for shoals of one species follow 
the other, from the equator to the pole. The 
cod, from the Banks of Newfoundland, pursue 
the whiting, which flies before it, to the most 
southern shores of Spain : and the cachalot is 
said to follow shoals of herrings, and to swal- 
low thousands at a single gulp. This may be 
one cause of their annual migration, though 
others likewise may be produced ; they may 
change their residence for one more suited to 
their constitution, or more adapted for deposit- 
ing their spawn. 

It is remarkable that no fish are fond of very 
cold waters, and in summer are seen in num- 
bers, lying in shallows near the shore, where 
the sun has the power of warming the water 
to the bottom ; and, in the winter, at the lowest 
depths of the ocean, where the coldness of the 
atmosphere has not the power to reach. 

The severity of the winter is fatal to many 
fresh- water fishes, as may frequently be ob- 
served after the breaking up of a frost ; this is 



58 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

often occasioned by the air being excluded 
from them by the thick impenetrability of the 
sheets of ice. Though all fish reside in the 
water, air is necessary to the preservation of 
their lives ; yet nothing is more difficult to be 
accounted for, than the manner in which they 
obtain the supply. The use that is generally 
assigned to the air-bladder, is the enabling the 
fish to rise or sink at its will ; but the an- 
cients were of opinion that it was to come in 
aid of the lungs, and to remain as a kind of 
storehouse of air, to supply the animal if dis- 
tressed ; and to this opinion we are inclined 
to assent. 

Hitherto we have seen the inhabitants of 
the ocean every way inferior to those which 
dwell upon the land ; but, if they are capable 
of fewer enjoyments, they are generally en- 
dowed with a greater length of life ; for, re- 
siding in an element subject to but little vari- 
ation, they avoid many of the evils produced 
by the atmosphere's change, and their size 
continues to increase with their years. 

There have been two methods devised for 
determining the age of fishes : the one is by 
the number of circles on the scales ; and the 
other, by the transverse section of the back. 
When the scale of a fish is examined through 
a microscope, it will be found to consist of a 
number of circles one within another, resem- 
bling those which appear on the transverse 
section of a tree, and offering the same infor- 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 59 

mation to the mind ; for as the circles on the 
tree correspond with the years of its growth, 
so those upon the scales of the fish are pro- 
portioned to its life ; and by this method Mr. 
Buffon assures us he discovered a carp to be a 
hundred years of age. 

The age of those fish which are destitute of 
scales, may be discovered by separating the 
joints of the back, and then observing the num- 
ber of rings which are exhibited upon the sur- 
face where they were joined. Though the 
discovery of these marks may be more inge- 
nious than certain, there is no reason to doubt 
that the generality of the species are very 
long-lived. Those that have ponds are ena- 
bled to form an opinion of their ages, by mak- 
ing observations upon their different size. All 
sorts, a few of the larger ones excepted, mul- 
tiply their kinds by hundreds and thousands at 
a time : some of their number bring forth their 
young alive ; but the greater proportion are 
produced from eggs, which are either depo- 
sited at the bottom or the edges of the water, 
or float in millions on the surface of the stream. 

Of these eggs, scarcely one in a hundred 
produces an animal, as the aquatic birds de- 
vour those that are found on the edges of the 
water, and those at the bottom become a prey 
to the fish. Still there are sufficient to supply 
the deep with inhabitants, and to provide for 
the wants of a considerable part of mankind ; 
for Lewenhoeck tells us, that in one season a 



60 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

gadus morhua will produce nine millions of 
eggs. The mackerel and flounder are like- 
wise strikingly prolific ; for the former spawns 
five hundred thousand, and the latter a mil- 
lion, in the year. Such an amazing increase, 
if permitted to come to maturity, would be 
much too abundant for the ocean to contain : 
yet two wise purposes are answered by this 
astonishing fecundity ; for it is the means of 
preserving the species in the midst of number- 
less enemies, and serves the rest with that 
kind of sustenance that is most likely to con- 
tribute to the prolongation of their lives. 

Fishes in general, the whale kind excepted, 
are entirely divested of all tenderness for their 
young, and, instead of nurturing them with 
that fondness conspicuous in the brute crea- 
tion, frequently devour them with the same 
indifference as every other kind of food. Such 
is the general picture of these heedless hun- 
gry creatures ; yet there are some endowed 
with finer feelings than the rest, and which 
seem to possess all those parental sensations 
which are so easily to be discovered both in 
quadrupeds and birds. These nurse their 
offspring with the fondest solicitude, and seem 
to experience all a mother's care. 

Under this class comes the cetaceous tribe 
of fishes, or, as they may otherwise be termed, 
those of the whale kind. There are others, 
which, though not capable of nursing their 
young, yet bring them alive into the world, and 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 61 

protect them both from danger and harm ; 
these are termed cartilaginous, from having 
gristle instead of bones ; but those which leave 
their spawn unprotected, and seem dead to 
those sensations which other parents feel, are 
distinguished by the name of spinous fishes, 
from the sharpness of their bones bearing a 
resemblance to a thorn. 

Thus it may be observed, that there are 
three grand divisions ; the cetaceous, the car- 
tilaginous, and the spinous ; all differing from 
each other in their appearance and conforma- 
tion, and in their manner of educating their 
young. 



MARINE REMAINS. 
A term used by many authors to express the 
shells of sea-fishes, and parts of crustaceous 
and other sea animals, found in digging at 
great depths in the earth, or on the tops of 
high mountains. Their being lodged in these 
places, is an evident and unquestionable proof 
of the sea having been once there, since it 
must have covered those places where it has 
left its productions. It has been a favorite 
system with many, and particularly with the 
late Dr. Woodward, that all these marine bo- 
dies were brought to the places where they 
now lie, by the waters of the universal deluge ; 
which, as w r e are informed by holy writ, cov- 
6 



62 WONDEKS OF THE OCEAN. 

ered the whole surface of the globe, and even 
the highest mountains. 

But though this is a very ready expedient to 
account for many of the natural phenomena, 
yet there are evident proofs that it cannot 
have been the cause of all that is attributed 
to it, and there must necessarily have been 
some other cause of many of these remains 
having been placed where we now find them. 
Neither does the opinion of some particular 
authors, that partial inundations of different 
places have left these marine bodies behind 
them at the recess of the waters, seem suffi- 
cient to account for the multitudes of these 
remains, many of which we find thrown upon 
places inaccessible to such floods. 

Signor Moro has attempted to account for 
these phenomena on a new plan of reasoning. 
He observes that it is the best basis of argu- 
ment to begin from facts : and that if we can 
certainly find how some part of these animal 
remains come to be deposited at such great 
distances from their natural residence, we may 
very rationally conclude, that by the same 
means, be they what they will, all the rest 
were also brought thither. He adds, that the 
earth, once the bottom of the sea, or the level 
surface of a plain, may be, and frequently has 
been, in the memory of man, raised up into a 
mountain by subterranean fires, earthquakes, 
and volcanoes. He mentions the famous in- 
stance of the new island raised out of the bot- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 63 

torn of the sea near Santorini in the year 1707, 
which became of a circumference not less than 
six miles, and of the new mountain raised 
near Puzzoli in 1538. 

These, and many other like facts, prove that 
the origin of mountains and islands may have 
been such, and that the matter they consist of 
may have been the same which was once the 
bottom of the sea ; and that the marine bodies 
found in these mountains, were such as were 
living, or remaining of living fish at the time 
when the island or mountain was so raised 
above the surface of the water which before 
covered it. 

This is no new opinion ; but this author has 
set it in a new and much stronger light than 
ever it had appeared in before, by the instances 
and examples he has brought in proof of it. 
Some have been fond of believing that the bo- 
dies we call marine remains, were never in- 
deed any parts of living animals, but that they 
are merely lusi naturce formed in the places 
where they are found ; but Fabius Columna 
proved this to be an error, showing that the 
shark's teeth, or glossopetrag of the island of 
Malta, when calcined by a strong fire, yielded 
ashes the same with those from animal bodies, 
and by no means of the same nature with those 
produced from calcined stones. 

That changes of parts of the bottom of the 
sea into dry land have often been made, is 
proved not only from the late known instances, 



64 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

but from the testimonies of Strabo, Pliny, and 
other writers of credit : and nothing is more 
obvious to reason, than that in the sudden rise 
of such parts of the bottom of the sea, all its 
contents, all the shells, and other hard parts of 
fishes lying there, would be carried up with it. 

As some mountains and some islands must 
have certainly been produced in this manner, 
it is not impossible but that all of them may 
have been so ; and there is no more than this 
required to account clearly and evidently for 
all the vast profusion of marine bodies on land 
as we find them, without having recourse to 
the improbable means of the universal deluge, 
which, for many plain reasons, cannot have 
been the cause ; or to the effects of particular 
inundations, which must have been wholly in- 
capable of lodging many of them there. 

The lodgment of shells in the solid strata of 
mountains, is better accounted for by this sys- 
tem of Signor Moro than any other : and if it 
be asked why some mountains afford them in 
great- plenty, and others do not at all, it will 
not be difficult to answer, by observing, that 
among the mountains of the more known parts 
of the world, some consist of mere solid rock, 
and others of various strata of earthy and oth- 
er matter ; that the first of these may be sup- 
posed primary or natural mountains, and the 
other, secondary or accidental ones : and that 
these marine remains are always wanting in 
the former, and usually are found in the lat- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 65 

ter, which is a fact greatly favorable to this 
system. 

There are many difficulties attending the 
accounts of all authors of the formation of the 
earth, and the lodging of these bodies in it ; 
nor is this last system without difficulty. The 
causes here assigned as to the origin of moun- 
tains and islands, doubtless have been so in 
regard to some, but scarcely to all ; and the 
bodies here treated of are so numerous, in 
some particular places, that scarcely any ac- 
count can solve the difficulty of their being 
collected together in so strange a manner. 



SPOXGE. 



Sponge is a marine production, generally to 
be met with in the shops in pieces only. Its 
texture is cavernous and porous. Its great 
elasticity, and its property of imbibing, and as 
readily parting with, a large quantity of wa- 
ter, render it useful. Sponge is to be chosen 
as light as possible, perfectly clean, and free 
from stone, of as pale a color as may be, with 
small holes, and fine, and soft to the touch. It 
grows in the Archipelago, at considerable 
depths, on the rocks, about some of the islands 
there ; and multitudes of people make a trade 
of diving for it. It is also common in the 
Mediterranean and many other seas, though 
in general browner or yellower, and not so 



66 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

fine as that of the Archipelago. It adheres in 
large masses to rocks and stones, sometimes to 
large shells, and is either round, flat, or hollow, 
like a funnel. 

There has been much dispute among na- 
turalists concerning the real nature of the 
sponge ; nor is it yet satisfactorily decided 
whether it belongs to the animal or vegetable 
kingdom. But it appears to be destitute of 
irritability as well as of any locomotive power ; 
and some recent writers have maintained that 
it is during a part of its existence a vegetable, 
and during the rest an animal. The opinion 
that sponge is, like coral, the work of a polype, 
is erroneous. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SPRINGS 

Spring, in Natural History, is a fountain or 
source of water, rising out of the ground. Vari- 
ous have been the opinions of philosophers 
concerning the origin of springs; but those 
which deserve notice are only the three fol- 
lowing ones: 1. That the sea- water is convey- 
ed through subterranean ducts, or canals, to 
the places where the springs flow out of the 
earth : but as it is impossible that the water 
should be thus conveyed to the tops of moun- 
tains, since it cannot rise higher than the sur- 
face, some have had recourse to subterraneous 
heats ; by which being rarefied, it is supposed 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 67 

to ascend in vapors through the bowels of the 
mountains. But as no sufficient proof is brought 
of the existence of these central heats, or of 
caverns in the mountains big enough to let the 
vapor ascend, supposing such heats, we shall 
not take up our reader's time with a formal 
refutation of this hypothesis. 

2. As to those who advance the capillary 
hypothesis, or suppose the water to rise from 
the depth of the sea through the porous parts 
of the earth, as it rises in capillary tubes, or 
through sands or ashes, they seem not to con- 
sider one principal property of this kind of 
tube, or this sort of attraction : for though the 
water rise to the top of the tube or sand, yet 
will it rise no higher, because it is by the at- 
traction of the parts above that the fluid rises, 
and where that is wanting it can rise no fur- 
ther. Therefore, though the water of the sea 
may be drawn into the substance of the earth 
by attraction, yet it can never be raised by this 
means into a cistern, or cavity, to become the 
source of springs. 3. The third hypothesis is 
that of the sagacious naturalist, Dr. Halley, 
who supposes the true sources of springs to be 
melted snow, rainwater, dew, and vapors con- 
densed. 

In order to prove that the vapors raised by 
the heat of the sun from the surface of the 
seas, lakes, and rivers are abundantly sufficient 
to supply the springs and rivers with fresh 
water, the doctor made the following experi- 



68 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

ment : he took a vessel of water, made of the 
same degree of saltness with that of the sea, 
by means of the hydrometer ; and having 
placed a thermometer in it, he brought it, by 
means of a pan of coals, to the same degree 
of heat with that of the air in the hottest sum- 
mer. He then placed his vessel, with the ther- 
mometer in it, in one scale, and nicely counter- 
poised it with weights in the other : after two 
hours, he found that about the sixtieth part of 
an inch was gone off in vapor, and consequent- 
ly in twelve hours, the length of a natural day, 
one tenth of an inch would have been evapora- 
ted. 

From this experiment it follows, that every 
ten square inches of the surface of the water 
yield a cubic inch of water in vapor per day, 
every square mile 6,914 tons, and every square 
degree (or G9 English miles) 33 millions of 
tons. Now, if we suppose the Mediterranean 
to be 40 degrees long, and 4 broad at a medium, 
which is the least that can be supposed, its 
surface will be 160 square degrees, from 
whence there will evaporate 5280 millions of 
tons per day, in the summer time. The Med- 
iterranean receives water from the nine great 
rivers following, viz. the Iberus, the Rhine, the 
Tiber, the Po, the Danube, the Neister, the 
Borysthenes, the Tanais, and the Nile, all the 
rest being small, and their waters inconsidera- 
ble. 

Now let us suppose that each of these rivers 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 69 

conveys ten times as much water to the sea as 
the Thames ; which, as is observed, yields 
daily 76,032,000 cubic feet, which is equal to 
203 millions of tons ; and therefore all the nine 
rivers will produce 1827 millions of tons ; which 
is little more than one-third of the quantity 
evaporated each day from the sea. The pro- 
digious quantity of water remaining, the doctor 
allows to rains, which fall again into the seas, 
and for the uses of vegetation. 

As to the manner in which these waters are 
collected, so as to form reservoirs for the dif- 
ferent kinds of springs, it seems to be this : the 
tops of mountains, in general, abound with 
cavities, and subterraneous caverns formed by 
nature to serve as reservoirs ; and their pointed 
summits, which seem to pierce the clouds, stop 
those vapors which fluctuate in the atmosphere, 
and being constipated thereby, they precipitate 
in water, and by their gravity easily penetrate 
through beds of sand and lighter earth, till they 
are stopped in their descent by more dense 
strata, as beds of clay, stone, &c, where they 
form a basin or cavern, and work a passage 
horizontally, and issue out at the side of the 
mountain. Many of these springs running 
down by the valleys, between the ridges of 
hills, and uniting their streams, form rivulets 
or brooks ; and many of these, again, uniting 
on the plain, become a river. 

Springs are either such as run continually, 
called perennial; or such as run only for a 



70 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

time, and at certain seasons of the year, and 
therefore called temporary springs. Others 
again are called intermitting springs, because 
they flow and then stop, and flow and stop 
again : and, finally, reciprocating springs, 
whose waters rise and fall, or flow and ebb, 
by regular intervals. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF RIVERS. 

When a stream is not large enough to bear 
boats or small vessels laden, it is called a rivu- 
let or brook. The confluence of a number of 
the small streams produces what is called a 
river. The Wolga and Danube are each aug- 
mented, in their course, by not less than 200 
tributary streams. 

The current of rivers is at first occasioned 
by the descent of the ground ; but this impulse 
once occasioned, sometimes drives them over 
ground that is almost level. Thus the Ama- 
zon descends only one tenth of an inch in a 
mile, for the last 400 miles of its course ; the 
Paraguay, one thirty-third of an inch in the 
same distance. In one part of its course, the 
Seine descends only one foot in a mile ; and 
the Ganges only one inch. 

Many rivers are lost, or disappear in the 
earth, before they reach any extensive reser- 
voir of water. In some instances, they appear 
to descend into caverns, and rise again at some 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 71 

distance. The Rhone is lost in this manner, 
on the borders of Switzerland, and rises again 
at the distance of three hundred feet. The 
Guadiana of Spain is lost for several miles. 
The Tigris, meeting Mount Taurus, runs under 
it, and flows out at the other side of the moun- 
tain. 

Most large rivers are subject to annual or 
semi-annual floods of greater or less extent. 
The floods of the Nile, of the Ganges, and of 
the Mississippi rise about thirty feet above the 
common level. The Ohio, and other branches 
of the Mississippi, often rise forty or fifty feet ; 
and the Oronoco, from seventy to one hundred 
and twenty feet. The floods of the Oronoco, 
the Amazon, and the Ganges, cover the coun- 
try for one hundred miles in breadth. 

The floods of rivers are highly useful, by 
leaving behind a deposite of vegetable mud or 
slime, which renders the vales of rivers the 
most fertile spots on earth. Egypt is entirely 
dependent on the floods of the Nile for water- 
ing as well as fertilizing its lands. 

The floods of rivers also are often very de- 
structive, sweeping away houses and villages. 
It was estimated that the flood of the Ganges, 
in 1822, destroyed from 50,000 to 100,000 per- 
sons. 

The waters of most rivers are impregnated 
with particles of minerals, metals, and other 
substances. Thus some rivers bring sands in- 
termixed with gold, as in Japan, Peru, Mexico, 



72 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN, 

Africa, and Cuba. In Guinea is a river, where 
the negroes make it a business to separate the 
gold dust from the sand and sell it to the Eu- 
ropeans. 

Rivers carry down in their course large 
quantities of sand and mud. By this means 
islands are frequently formed at the mouths 
of rivers. The extensive and rich Delta in 
Egypt has been entirely formed by the mud 
carried down by the waters of the Nile. In 
ancient times, the space occupied by it was a 
basin or gulf of the sea. 

Rivers which flow through mountainous re- 
gions have steep and high banks, and the nav- 
igation is frequently obstructed ; but those 
which have their course through alluvial re- 
gions have low banks, and are farthest navi- 
gable. Rivers are rapid in proportion to their 
straightness, all other things being equal. 

Some rivers are much augmented by fre- 
quent rains or melted snow. In the country 
of Peru and Chili, there are small rivers that 
only flow in the day ; because they are only 
fed by the snow upon the mountains of the 
Andes, which is then melted by the heat of 
the sun. There are also several rivers upon 
both sides of the extreme parts of Africa and 
in India, which, for the same reason, are great- 
er by day than by night. The rivers also in 
these places are almost dried up in summer, 
but swell and overflow their banks in winter, 
or in the wet season. Thus the Wolga, in 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 73 

May and June, is filled with water, and over- 
flows its shelves and islands, though, at other 
times of the year, it is so shallow as scarcely 
to afford a passage for loaded ships. 

Rivers usually have their sources in moun- 
tains or elevated grounds ; in the descent from 
which it is mostly that they acquire the velo- 
city or acceleration which maintains their fu- 
ture current. In proportion as they advance, 
this velocity diminishes, on account of the con- 
tinual friction of the water against the bottom 
and sides of the channel ; as well as from the 
various obstacles they meet with in their pro- 
gress, and from their arriving at length in 
plains, where the descent is less, and conse- 
quently their inclination to the horizon greater. 

When the acquired velocity is quite spent, 
through the many obstacles, so that the cur- 
rent becomes horizontal, there will then no- 
thing remain to propagate the motion and 
continue the stream, but the depth or the per- 
pendicular pressure of the water, which is al- 
ways proportional to the depth. And this 
resource increases as the occasion for it in- 
creases ; for in proportion as the water loses 
the velocity acquired by the descent, it rises 
and increases in its depth. 'It appears from 
the laws of motion, pertaining to bodies moved 
on inclined planes, that when water flows free- 
ly upon an inclined bed, it acquires a velocity, 
which is always as the square root of the 
quantity of descent of the bed. But in a ho- 
7 



74 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

rizontal bed opened by sluices or otherwise, 
at one or both ends, the water flows out by its 
gravity alone. 

The greatest velocity of a river is about the 
middle of its depth and breadth, or that point 
which is the farthest possible from the surface 
of the water, and from the bottom and sides 
of the bed or channel. Whereas, on the con- 
trary, the least velocity of the water is at the 
bottom and sides of the bed, because there the 
resistance arising from friction is the greatest, 
which is communicated to the other parts of 
the section of the river inversely as the dis- 
tances from the bottom and sides. 

The union of tw r o rivers into one makes the 
whole flow the swifter, because, instead of the 
friction of four shores, they have only two to 
overcome, and one bottom instead of two ; 
also, the stream, being farther distant from 
the banks, goes on with the less interruption ; 
besides that a greater quantity of water, mov- 
ing with a greater velocity, digs deeper in the 
bed, and of course retrenches its former width. 
Hence also it is, that rivers, by being united, 
take up less space on the surface of the earth, 
and are more advantageous to low grounds, 
which drain their superfluous moisture into 
them, and have also less occasion for dikes to 
prevent their overflowing. 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 75 



THE NILE. 



- with annual pomp, 



Rich king of floods ! o'erfiows the swelling Nile. 

Thomson. 

This celebrated river is likewise called 
Abanchi, signifying in the Abyssinian tongue, 
" the father of rivers," and is named by the 
Africans Neel Shem, the Egyptian river. It 
divides Egypt into two parts ; and its extent, 
from its source, is supposed to exceed two 
thousand miles. It arises from amidst the 
Mountains of the Moon, in Upper Ethiopia, and 
flows into the Mediterranean Sea by seven 
channels, two only of which are at present nav- 
igable. The ancients were entirely ignorant 
of the source of this river, although many en- 
deavors were made by them to explore it ; but 
it is now well known to lie in about the twelfth 
degree of north latitude. It enters the lake 
of Dambia, in Abyssinia, crossing one of its 
extremities with such extreme rapidity, that 
its waters may be distinguished through a pro- 
gress of six leagues within this lake. 

Here its magnificence commences : after a 
farther progress of about fifteen miles, it rushes 
precipitately from the summit of a high rock, 
forming one of the most beautiful waterfalls 
known. It now again collects its scattered 
streams among the rocks, which seem to be 
disjointed in that part merely to afford it a 
passage. They are so close to each other, that 



76 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN". 

a bridge of beams was once laid over them to 
afford a passage to an army ; and Sultan Se- 
gued built over them a bridge of one arch, to 
construct which he procured masons from 
India. 

The greater part of Lower Egypt is con- 
tained in a triangular island, formed by the 
Mediterranean Sea and the two great branches 
of the Nile — which dividing itself five or six 
miles from Old Cairo, flows on the one side to 
the northeast, falling into the sea at Damietta ; 
while the other branch runs to the northwest, 
and enters the sea at Rosetta. What is call- 
ed the Delta, resembling the Greek letter of 
that name, and constituting a triangle, is thus 
formed. 

The water of the Nile is thick and muddy, 
more particularly when the river is swollen 
by the heavy rains, which constantly fall with- 
in the tropics in the beginning of the sum- 
mer season, and which are doubtless the prin- 
cipal cause of its overflowing the low lands 
of Egypt. A similar phenomenon in the Gan- 
ges will be noticed in the next article ; and it 
is the same with all the rivers which have 
either their rise or course within the tropics ; 
they annually break their bounds, and cover 
the lands for many miles on each side, before 
they reach the sea. They likewise leave pro- 
lific mud, which, like that of the Nile, fertilizes 
the land ; besides which, the north winds pre- 
vailing about the latter end of May, drive in 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 77 

the waters from the sea, and keep back those 
of the river, in such a manner as considerably 
to assist the swell. 

The Egyptians, and the Copts more espe- 
cially, are persuaded that the Nile always be- 
gins to rise on the same day of the year ; as, 
indeed, it generally commences on the 18th or 
19th of June. Its rise was observed for three 
successive years by Dr. Pococke, who found it 
to ascend during the first five days from five 
to ten inches ; and it thus continued rising till 
it had attained the height of nine feet, when 
the Canal of Cairo was cut. It then rose from 
three to five inches only in the day ; for hav- 
ing spread over the land, and entered the canal, 
although 'more water might have descended 
than before, its rise was less considerable. The 
other canals were now laid open at stated 
times, and those which water the lower 
grounds, the last. These canals are carried 
along the highest parts of the country, to the 
end that the water may be conveyed to the 
valleys. 

The Nile has one peculiar characteristic. 
Other rivers being supplied by rivulets, the 
ground is lowest near their banks ; but as not 
any water flows into the Nile in its passage 
throughout Egypt, and as it is necessary that 
this river should overflow the land, the coun- 
try is generally lower at a distance from, than 
near to it ; and, in most pax*ts, the land has a 

gradual descent from the river to the foot of 

7 # 



78 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the hills, which terminate the sandy plains 
most benefited by the irrigation. 

Among other remarkable appearances, the 
celebrated Bruce notices a very singular one 
attendant on the inundation of the jN'ile. In 
Abyssinia, the early part of the morning is 
constantly clear in that season, with a fine 
sunshine. About nine, a small cloud, not 
above four feet in apparent breadth, appears 
in the east, whirling violently round as if on 
an axis ; but having approached nearly to the 
zenith, it first abates its motion, and then loses 
its form, extending itself greatly, and seeming 
to call up vapors from all the opposite quarters. 

The clouds thus formed, having attained 
nearly the same height, rush against each 
other with great violence, and remind the 
spectator of Elisha foretelling rain on Mount 
Carmel. The air being impelled before the 
heaviest mass, or swiftest mover, makes an 
impression of its form on the collection of 
clouds opposite ; and the moment it has taken 
possession of the space made to receive it, the 
most violent thunder possible to be conceived 
follows instantly, attended by rain. After 
some hours, the sky again clears, with a wind 
at the north ; and it is always disagreeably 
cold when the thermometer is below sixty- 
three degrees. 

Dr. Clarke, in his travels, draws the follow- 
ing elegant picture of this most interesting 
river : — 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 79 

" Here we were unexpectedly greeted with 
an astonishing view of the Nile, the Delta, and 
the numerous groves in the neighborhood of 
Rosetta. The scene is beyond description. 
The sudden contrast it offers, opposed to the 
desert we had traversed, the display of riches 
and abundance poured forth by the fertility 
of this African paradise, with all the local cir- 
cumstances of reflection, excited by an exten- 
sive prospect of the Nile, and of the plains of 
Egypt, render it one of the most interesting 
sights in the world. The beautiful boats pe- 
culiar to the Nile, with their large wide-spread- 
ing sails, were passing up and down the river. 
Unable to quit the spot, we dismissed our 
guides, and remained some time contempla- 
ting the delightful picture. Afterwards, de- 
scending on foot, close by the superb mosque 
of Abu-mandur, we continued our walk along 
the banks of the Nile, through gardens richer 
than imagination can portray, beneath the 
shade of enormous overhanging branches of 
sycamore and fig trees, amidst bowers of roses, 
and through groves of date, citron, lime, and 
banana trees, to Rosetta." 



THE GANGES. 

Both in magnitude and extent, the Ganges 
is a most noble and majestic river. It rises in 
the kingdom of Thibet ; entering Hindostan 



80 WONDERS OF THE OCEAX. 

about the thirtieth degree of latitude, and runs 
first southeastward by the cities of Bekaner, 
Minapor, Halabes, Benares, and Patna, to Ra- 
jah Mahl, where it divides into two branches. 
The eastern having passed by Dakka, the cap- 
ital of Bengal, enters the gulf of that name 
about Chatigan. The western, descending by 
Kossum-bazar and Hughly, falls into the gulf 
below Chandernagor towards Pipeli. Many 
of the Jew r s and ancient Christians believed 
this river to be the Pison, one of the four men- 
tioned in Scripture as the boundaries of the 
terrestrial paradise. 

The length of the Ganges exceeds fourteen 
hundred miles. The Burrampooter, its proud- 
est auxiliary, is nearly of the same length ; 
and the opinion generally entertained, is, that 
the sources of these mighty rivers are not far 
distant from each other. Each of them runs, 
however, nearly a thousand miles, before they 
unite and constitute one common stream, fall- 
ing into the Bay of Bengal by several mouths. 
Ganga is, in the Hindostan language, a gen- 
eral term for a river ; but it is particularly 
applied to this one on account of its unrivalled 
magnificence. 

The Hindoos have a superstitious veneration 
for all the great rivers which fertilize their 
country ; but the waters of the Ganges are to 
them peculiarly sacred. In its impetuous 
course it opens a passage through Mount Him- 
meleh. and again appears amidst impending 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 81 

rocks, which resembling on an immense scale 
the head of a cow, an animal equally esteemed 
by the Hindoos as was the apis or sacred ox 
among the Egyptians, their religious awe for 
the Ganges is on that account enhanced. 

Not any river in the world imparts greater 
benefits to the countries through which it 
passes ; for, by annually overflowing its banks 
like the Nile, it waters and manures the coun- 
try to an extent of a hundred miles in breadth. 
The Hindoos, having deified this river, make 
it an act of their religion to perform a pilgrim- 
age to it, supposing its waters to purify from 
defilement such as bathe in them. On its slimy 
shore they bury their dead, and also remove 
those who are at the point of death to its 
banks, or to those of some one of the creeks 
which run into it. 

On certain festivals, a concourse of upwards 
of a hundred thousand persons assemble to 
bathe in the Ganges, on the banks of which 
are a great number of superb and immensely 
rich pagodas. But what principally distin- 
guishes this river, besides its greatness and ra- 
pidity, is the gold it brings down in its sands, 
and throws on its banks ; and the precious 
stones and pearls it produces, not only in itself, 
but in the Gulf of Bengal, into which it dis- 
charges its waters, and which abounds with 
them. 



82 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN 

THE RIVER JORDAN. 

In the middle of the night of the 14th of 
April, (says Abbe Maritis,) we were desired 
to be ready to quit the plain of Jericho, that 
we might march forward to the river Jordan ; 
and soon after we set out. 

This march had something in it very grand, 
on account of the great number of lights car- 
ried by the horsemen who preceded and sur- 
rounded us. These lights are made by means 
of iron boxes, suspended from the points of 
lances, and in which is burnt the wood of the 
pine, or any other resinous tree. All persons 
of distinction travel in this manner during the 
night. 

The plains here are intersected by ditches, 
rivulets, and torrents, which at this season of 
the year were dry. We found nothing worthy 
of observation in them but the ruins of an an- 
cient church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. 
Our pious orientals bowed themselves as they 
passed them ; and out of respect for the me- 
mory of the saint, caused their horses to do the 
same. 

An immense and beautiful meadow opened 
before us, in which we intended to erect our 
tents. It is washed by the waters of the river 
Jordan, which refresh it and add greatly to its 
fertility. When we halted, two altars were 
erected in haste, upon which the fathers of the 
Holy Land celebrated mass. No time indeed 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 83 

could be more favorable for prayer. The first 
rays of the sun began to gild the summits of 
the neighboring mountains: the clouds which 
obscured the heavens had retired, and display- 
ed to view a most enchanting horizon : but in 
separating they shed upon the earth a gentle 
dew, which seemed to insinuate itself into 
my veins, to refresh my blood, and even my 
thoughts, if I may be allowed the expression, 
and to dispose my soul for joy and sensibility, 
and to inspire it with gratitude towards the 
Author of Nature. 

But why should superstition, even in this 
rustic temple, be mixed with those prayers 
which were addressed to the Almighty? Here 
the pilgrim discharges his vow : his only in- 
tention, in undertaking this short journey, was 
to come and contemplate the sacred and mi- 
raculous waters, to drink of them, and to bathe 
in them ; because, it is said, they purify both 
the soul and the body. The Greeks even im- 
agine that people are not properly baptized 
until they have plunged three times into the 
river Jordan. Men, women, and children, 
therefore, may be seen throwing themselves 
into the water together, with an eagerness al- 
most bordering on madness, without thinking 
that they offend both against modesty and de- 
cency. 

The custom of bathing in this river is as 
ancient as the age of Elisha. " Go," said that 
prophet to Naaman, who was afflicted with 



84 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the leprosy, " and wash in Jordan seven times, 
and thy flesh shall come again unto thee, and 
thou shalt be clean." Naaman obeyed ; and 
as a reward for his faith, his blood was puri- 
fied, and his flesh became as sound as that of 
an infant. 

The Jordan, in the Arabic language, is call- 
ed Sceriah. It has its source at the bottom of 
the Anti-Libanus, in the country called by the 
Syrians, Vadettin ; and is formed from the 
waters of two fountains, which are a mile dis- 
tant from each other. One of them lies to the 
east, and is called Jor ; the other, which is 
exposed to the south, is named Dan. We see, 
therefore, that by uniting their waters, they 
have united their names also, to form that of 
the river to which they give birth. 

The confluence of the two streams is found 
near the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, 
which is at present only a large village, in- 
habited by the Druses, and called Behne. 

The river begins its course between the east 
and the south ; and, after running seven miles, 
falls into the lake Samochon or Meron, at pre- 
sent called Hulet Panias. 

This lake is six miles in length, from north 
to south ; and may be about four in breadth, 
from east to west. Abundant in water during 
the winter, it is almost dry in summer, and 
leaves its muddy blackish bottom exposed to 
view. Its banks are covered with reeds and 
bulrushes ; and in the neighborhood arise a 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 85 

number of fruit-trees, forming a kind of forest, 
to which travellers would retire for the sake 
of its cool shade, had not ferocious animals, 
such as the tiger, made it their usual haunt. 
The Jordan issues from this lake, augmented 
by part of its waters ; flows through the plain ; 
and, two miles thence, passes under a stone 
bridge, called by the Arabs, Gisrjaacub, that 
is to say, Jacob's bridge. This bridge is 60 
cubits in length, and only ten in breadth. It 
consists of three arches, which appear to be 
exceedingly well constructed. The inhabitants 
have a great veneration for it, because, they 
say, the patriarch Jacob crossed it when he 
fled from the vengeance of his brother Esau. 

We read, in William of Tyre, that this 
bridge served also as a bulwark to Baldwin 
IV. against the Saracen armies, and that this 
prince caused a citadel to be constructed upon 
a neighboring hill. 

The river follows the same direction be- 
tween Traconitis and Galilee, as far as the 
Lake of Tiberias, near the ancient Chorazin 
and Capernaum, with which it mixes its water. 

When it issues from this lake, which it 
crosses for the space of eighteen miles, it takes 
the name of Jordan Major. It advances 10 
miles towards the south ; divides Perea from 
Samaria, the plains of the Moabites from Ju- 
dea ; and receives in its passage several riv- 
ers, rivulets, and streams ; such as the Jacob, 
which has its source in the mountains of Ara- 
8 



86 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

bia ; the Dibon, so called from a city of the 
Amorites, near which it arises ; the Jazer, 
that issues from a rock where there was a 
city of the same name, possessed by the tribe 
of Gad; and the Cherith,a considerable brook, 
celebrated, according to the Scriptures, for the 
retreat of the prophet Elijah, who was here 
fed by the ravens. After being augmented 
by all these streams, which water the beauti- 
ful plains of Aylona, in a course of 65 miles, 
from the Lake of Tiberias, the Jordan throws 
itself into the Dead Sea. 

This river may be, in general, about 35 cu- 
bits in breadth ; but when the snow is thawed, 
or during the rainy season, its waters increase, 
overflow its banks, extend to the distance of 
more than four miles, and, on account of the 
inequality of the ground, are divided some- 
times into two or three channels. It is about 
six cubits in depth. 

It is so rapid, at all times, that the strongest 
swimmer cannot cross it ; and I am of opinion 
(says the writer) that it would even be dan- 
gerous to cross it in a boat, unless one had the 
mantle of Elijah. Its waters are always mud- 
dy ; but when taken from the river and put 
into any kind of vessel, they immediately pu- 
rify, leaving at the bottom a black sediment 
mixed with bituminous particles. These wa- 
ters, however, are sweet, will not soon corrupt, 
and abound with fish. 

Both sides of the Jordan are bordered by a 



"WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 87 

forest of tufted trees, which grow so closely in 
some parts that they are impenetrable to the 
rays of the sun. This forest, like that in the 
neighborhood of Lake Samochon, is the retreat 
of tigers, w r hich sometimes carry desolation to 
the surrounding country. 

These forests are peopled also with birds 
of every kind, and particularly with nightin- 
gales, whose melodious strains delight the 
ear, and make the traveller almost forget the 
danger of approaching the river. 

The Jordan served, in some measure, to add 
to the triumph of Titus. A triumphal arch 
may still be seen at Rome, upon which this 
river is represented, under the figure of an old 
man leaning upon an urn, and submitting his 
head to the chains of the conqueror. 

We find, in the annals of Florence, that 
Francis I., of Medicis, grand duke of Tuscany, 
was baptized with the water of the Jordan, 
which Albert Bolognetti, the nuncio, caused 
some merchants to bring on purpose, as if it 
had been endued with any superior virtue ; 
but such was the superstition of the times, 
that people believed that the stains of original 
sin were better washed away by that water 
than by any other. It is astonishing, therefore, 
that the nobility, who at that period imagined 
they were much superior to the rest of man- 
kind, did not think of causing themselves to 
be baptized with this privileged water, which 
would have imprinted on them at their birth 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 



so remarkable a distinction. After the cara- 
van had discharged their religious duties, we 
quitted the Jordan in order to return to Jeri- 
cho. 



CORAL FORMATIONS. 

Coral belongs to the class of those surpris- 
ing productions of nature, which are named 
zoophites, or plant-animals, on account of their 
filling up the intermediate space between the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms. Zoophites 
make a most interesting department for study 
in natural history. The production of coral 
reefs and islands presents one of those geologi- 
cal changes, by which the earth's surface has 
been modified, and has received a new acces- 
sion from the sea. 

The common foundation of the clusters of 
islands discovered by modern navigators in the 
Pacific Ocean, as well as of those belonging to 
New South Wales, is evidently of coral struc- 
ture, immense reefs of which shoot out in all 
directions. There is every reason to believe 
that the islands which are occasionally raised 
by the tremendous agency of subterraneous vol- 
canoes, do not bear any proportion to those 
which are perpetually forming, by the silent but 
persevering efforts of the sea worms by which 
coral is produced. 

Banks of coral are found at all depths, and 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 89 

at all distances from the shore, entirely uncon- 
nected with the land, and detached from each 
other. By a quick progression, they grow up 
towards the surface ; while the winds, heaping 
up the coral from deeper water, chiefly accel- 
erate the formation of these banks into shoals 
and islands. They become gradually shallow- 
er ; and when once the sea meets with resist- 
ance, the coral is quickly thrown up by the 
force of the waves breaking against the bank. 
These coral banks have been seen in all their 
stages — some in deep water — others with a 
few rocks appearing above the surface, just 
formed into islands without the least appear- 
ance of vegetation ; and, lastly, others covered 
with soil and weeds. 

The loose corals, rolled inward by the bil- 
lows in large pieces, ground, and the reflux 
being unable to carry them away, become a 
bar to the coagulated sand with which they 
are always intermixed. This sand being easiest 
raised, is lodged at top ; and when its accu- 
mulated mass is elevated by violent storms, 
and no longer within the reach of common 
waves, it becomes a resting-place to birds 
whom the search of prey draws thither. Their 
dung, feathers, &c. augment the soil, and pre- 
pare it for the reception of accidental roots, 
branches, and seeds, cast up by the waves, 
or brought thither by birds. Thus islands 
are formed : the leaves and rotten branches, 
intermixing with the sand, produce in time a 
8* 



90 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

light black mould, in which trees and shrubs 
vegetate and thrive. Cocoa-nuts, which con- 
tinue long in the sea without losing their vege- 
tative powers, having been thrown on such 
islands, produce trees which are particularly 
adapted to all soils, whether sandy, rich, or 
rocky. 

The violence of the waves within the tropics 
must generally be directed to two points, ac- 
cording to the monsoons. Hence the islands 
formed from coral banks must be long and 
narrow, and lie nearly in a meridional direc- 
tion. Even supposing the banks to be round, 
as they seldom are when large, the sea meet- 
ing most resistance in the middle, must heave 
up the matter in greater quantities there, than 
towards the extremities ; and, by the same 
rule, the ends w r ill generally be open, or at 
least lowest. They will also commonly have 
soundings there, as the remains of the banks, 
not accumulated, will be under water. Where 
the coral banks are not exposed to the common 
monsoon, they wall alter their direction, and 
become either round, or extended in the par- 
allel, or of irregular forms, according to acci- 
dental circumstances. 

Captain Flinders, in his voyage to Terra 
Australis, gives a lively and interesting de- 
scription of a coral reef on the southern coast 
of New South Wales. On this reef he landed, 
and the water being very clear round the edges, 
a new creation, as it were, but imitative of the 



W0NDER3 OF THE OCEAN. 91 

old, was presented to the view. Wheat sheaves, 
mushrooms, stags' horns, cabbage leaves, and 
a variety of other forms, were glowing tinder 
water with vivid tints of every shade between 
green, purple, brown, and white ; equalling in 
beauty, and excelling in grandeur the most 
favorite parterre of the curious florist. These 
were different species of coral and fungus, 
growing, as it were, out of the solid rock, and 
each had its peculiar form and shade of color- 
ing ; but, while contemplating the richness of 
the scene, the destruction with which it was 
pregnant could not be forgotten. 

Different corals in a dead state, concreted 
into a solid mass of a dull white color, com- 
posed the stone of the reef. The negro heads 
were lumps which stood higher than the rest ; 
and being generally dry, were blackened by 
the weather ; but even in these the forms of 
the different corals, and some shells were dis- 
tinguishable. The edges of the reef, but par- 
ticularly on the outside where the sea broke, 
were the lightest parts ; within these were 
pools and holes containing live corals, sponges, 
sea-eggs, and cucumbers ; and many enormous 
cockles were scattered upon different parts of 
the reef. At low-water, these cockles seem 
most commonly to lie half open ; but frequently 
close with much noise — and the water within 
the shells then spouts up in a stream, three or 
four feet high : it is from this noise and the 
spouting of the water that they are discovered, 



92 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

for, in other respects, they are scarcely to be 
.distinguished from the coral rock. 

His description of a coral island which he 
afterwards visited on the same coast, is truly 
philosophical, and throws great light on these 
surprising productions of nature. 

" This little island, or rather the surrounding 
reef, which is three or four miles long, affords 
shelter from the southeast winds. It is scarcely 
more than a mile in circumference, but appears 
to be increasing both in elevation and extent. 
At no very distant period of time, it was one 
of those banks produced by the washing up of 
sand and broken coral, of which most reefs 
afford instances, and those of Torres' Strait a 
great many. These banks are in different 
stages of progress ; some, like this, are become 
islands, but not yet habitable ; some are above 
high-water mark, but destitute of vegetation ; 
while others are overflowed with every return- 
ing tide. 

" It seems to me, that, when the animalcules 
which form the corals at the bottom of the 
ocean, cease to live, their structures adhere to 
each other by virtue either of the glutinous 
remains within, or of some property in salt 
water ; and the interstices being gradually 
filled up with sand and broken pieces of coral 
washed by the sea, which also adhere, a mass 
of rock is at length formed. Future races of 
these animalcules erect their habitations upon 
the rising bank, and die in their turn, to in- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 93 

crease, but principally to elevate, this monu- 
ment of their wonderful labors. 

"The care taken to work perpendicularly in 
the early stages, would mark a surprising in- 
stinct in these diminutive creatures. Their 
wall of coral, for most part in situations where 
the winds are constant, being arrived at the 
surface, affords a shelter, to leeward of which 
their infant colonies may be safely sent forth, 
and to this their instinctive foresight it seems 
to be owing, that the windward side of a reef 
exposed to the open sea, is generally, if not 
always, the highest part, and rises almost per- 
pendicular, sometimes from the depth of two 
hundred, and perhaps many more fathoms. 

" To be constantly covered with water, 
seems necessary to the existence of the ani- 
malcules, for they do not work, except in holes 
upon the reef, beyond low- water mark ; but 
the coral sand and other broken remnants 
thrown up by the sea adhere to the rock, and 
form a solid mass with it, as high as the com- 
mon tides reach. That elevation surpassed, the 
future remnants, being rarely covered, lose 
their adhesive property ; and remaining in a 
loose state, form what is usually called a key 
upon the tops of the reef. The new bank is 
not long in being visited by sea birds ; salt 
plants take root upon it, and a soil begins to 
be formed ; a cocoa-nut is thrown on shore ; 
land birds visit it and deposite the seeds of shrubs 
and trees ; every high tide, and still more every 



94 WONDERS 07 THE OCEAN. 

gale, adds something to the bank ; the form of 
an island is gradually assumed — and last of 
all comes man to take possession. 

" This island is well advanced in the above 
progressive state ; having been many years, 
probably some ages, above the reach of the 
highest spring tides, or the wash of the surf in 
the heaviest gales. I distinguished, however, 
in the rock which forms its basis, the sand, 
coral, and shells formerly thrown up, in a more 
or less perfect state of cohesion ; small pieces 
of wood, pumice-stone, and other extraneous 
bodies, which chance had mixed with the cal- 
careous substances when the cohesion began, 
were enclosed in the rock ; and, in some cases, 
were still separable from it without much 
force. The upper part of the island is a mix- 
ture of the same substances in a loose state, 
with a little vegetable soil ; and is covered 
with the casuarina and a variety of other trees 
and shrubs, which give food to paroquets, 
pigeons, and some other birds ; to whose an- 
cestors it is probable the island was originally 
indebted for this vegetation." 



THE ART OF DIVING. 

The act of descending to a considerable 
depth beneath the surface of water, and con- 
tinuing in that situation a sufficient time, to 
collect valuable articles from the bottom of 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 96 

rivers, or the sea ; such as pearls, sponges, 
coral, and other submarine productions ; or to 
recover goods lost by shipwreck. 

Man does not appear to have been intended 
by nature for diving, or at least for continu- 
ing any time under water ; regular respiration 
being so necessary to his life, that, by the 
greatest inspiration, he cannot carry down a 
larger quantity of air than will supply him for 
two minutes. This we learn from Dr. Halley 
is possible, as he observed in a Florida Indian 
diver at Bermudas; but it is certainly an ex- 
treme case, for ordinary persons generally be- 
gin to feel a danger of suffocation in the space 
of half a minute after submersion in water. 
The doctor relates, that those who dive in the 
Archipelago for sponges, have a practice of 
taking in their mouths a piece of sponge dipped 
in oil, with a view, he supposes, of inhaling the 
air which the sponge contains ; and from this 
they are enabled to dive a longer time than 
others who employ no artifice. It is not easy 
to conceive how this can assist the diver's 
breathing ; for the introduction of any foreign 
substance into the mouth must necessarily di- 
minish the quantity of air he can take down. 
But we have been lately informed, that the 
real object of taking oil in their mouths is to 
calm those small waves on the surface of the 
sea, which prevent the light being so steadily 
transmitted to the bottom, as is necessary to 
enable the divers to find the small objects they 



96 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 

search for, without delay. By ejecting a little 
oil from their mouths, it rises to the surface, 
and spreading upon it, calms the waves in a 
most remarkable manner, and gives a brilliant 
light at the bottom. This singular property of 
oil has been long known, and is practised in 
many other ways to allay the agitation of the 
sea, by fishermen and mariners. 

A diver has to go through a very great ex- 
ertion in holding his breath when deep under 
water ; for it should be observed, that an 
equally great difficulty with the want of air 
arises, in diving at considerable depths, from 
the pressure of the water upon the surface of 
the body, tending to compress every cavity 
within it. It requires a very great muscular 
strength in the diver to resist this action ; no 
breastplate or other contrivance can defend 
him, unless it is made to exclude perfectly the 
water from his breast, and of sufficient strength 
to bear the pressure ; in which case it would 
become too heavy and cumbersome to permit 
his speedy descent and return. 

To dive at all requires long practice, and 
habitual exposure to the weight of the water, 
after the habit of retaining the breath is suf- 
ficiently acquired ; and it is observed, that 
when the most expert divers continue to dive 
repeatedly for any length of time in deep wa- 
ter, their eyes become bloodshot, and a spitting 
of blood is induced from the great exertion. 
People who are accustomed to the water from 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 97 

their infancy, will at length be enabled not 
only to remain much longer under water than 
could be supposed, but acquire a kind of am- 
phibious nature, so that they seem to have the 
use of all their faculties, as well when their 
bodies are immersed in water, as when they 
are on dry land. 

Many savage nations are remarkable for 
this, and, according to the accounts of late 
voyagers, the inhabitants of the South Sea 
Islands are such expert divers, that when a nail 
or any piece of iron was thrown overboard, 
they would instantly jump into the sea after 
it, and never fail to recover it, notwithstanding 
the quick descent of the metal. Even among 
civilized nations many persons have been found 
capable of continuing an incredible length of 
time under water. 

The most remarkable instance of this kind 
is the famous Sicilian diver Nicolo Pesce, who, 
according to the marvellous account given by 
Kircher, had from his infancy been so used to 
the sea, that at last it became his most natural 
element. It is said he was frequently known 
to spend five days in the midst of the waves, 
without any other provisions than the fish 
which he caught there, and ate raw. He often 
swam over from Sicily into Calabria, which is 
a tempestuous and dangerous passage, carrying 
letters from the king, and as frequently swam 
among the gulfs of the Lipari Islands, without 
any apprehension of danger. " In aid," says 
9 



98 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

Kircher, "of these powers of enduring the deep, 
nature seemed to have assisted him, in a very 
extraordinary manner ; for the spaces between 
his fingers and toes were webbed as in a goose, 
and his chest became so very capacious, that 
he could take in at one inspiration, as much 
breath as would serve him a whole day" 

At length, however, we are told, this extra- 
ordinary person met his fate, in exploring the 
depths of the whirlpool of Charybdis, at the 
instance of the king, who, after he had once 
succeeded in fetching up a golden cup that had 
been thrown in, ordered him to repeat the ex- 
periment. The authenticity of this account 
depends wholly upon the authority of Father 
Kircher, who assures us he had it from the 
archives of Sicily, and that the Sicilian king 
above mentioned was king Frederic. But, 
notwithstanding this assertion, the whole is so 
marvellous, as to prevent us from giving any 
particulars of the wonders which his hero saw 
at the bottom of the celebrated Charybdis. 



THE DIVING-BELL. 

The Diving-bell is a machine so contrived, 
that the diver is safely conveyed to any rea- 
sonable depth ; and may stay more or less time 
under the water, as the bell is greater or less. 
It is most conveniently made in the form of 
a truncated cone, the smallest base being 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 99 

closed, and the larger open. It is to be poised 
with lead, and so suspended, that it may sink 
full of air, with its open basis downward, and 
as near as may be in a situation parallel to 
the horizon, so as to close with the surface of 
the water all at once. 

Under this covercle the diver sitting sinks 
down with the included air to the depth de- 
sired ; and if the cavity of the vessel can con- 
tain a ton of water, a single man may remain 
a full hour without much inconvenience, and 
at five or six fathoms deep. But the lower he 
goes, still the more the enclosed air contracts 
itself, according to the weight of the water 
that compressed it ; so that at thirty-three feet 
deep the bell becomes half fall of water, the 
pressure of the incumbent water being then 
equal to that of the atmosphere ; and at all 
other depths, the space occupied by the com- 
pressed air in the upper part of its capacity, is 
to the space filled with water, as thirty-three 
feet to the depth of the surface of the water in 
the bell below the common surface of it. And 
this condensed air, being taken in with the 
breath, soon insinuates itself into all the cavi- 
ties of the body ; and has no ill effect, provided 
the bell be permitted to descend so slowly as 
to allow time for that purpose. 

When the English, in 1588, dispersed the 
Spanish fleet, called the Invincible Armada, 
part of the ships went to the bottom, near the 
isle of Mull, on the western coast of Scotland ; 



100 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

and some of these, according to the account 
of the Spanish prisoners, contained great rich- 
es. This information excited, from time to 
time, the avarice of speculators, and gave rise 
to several attempts to procure part of the lost 
treasure. In the year 1665, a person was so 
fortunate as to bring up some cannon, which, 
however, were not sufficient to defray the ex- 
penses. 

In the year 1680, William Phipps, a native 
of America, formed a project for searching and 
unloading a rich Spanish ship, sunk on the 
coast of Hispaniola ; and represented his plan 
in such a plausible manner, that the king, 
Charles II., gave him a ship, and furnished him 
with every thing necessary for the undertaking. 
He set sail in the year 1683 ; but being un- 
successful, returned again in great poverty, 
though in a firm conviction of the possibility 
of this scheme. By a subscription promoted 
chiefly by the duke of Albemarle, the son of 
the celebrated monk, Phipps was enabled, in 
1687, to try his fortune once more, having pre- 
viously engaged to divide the profit according 
to the twenty shares of which the subscription 
consisted. 

At first, all his labor proved fruitless ; but 
at last, when his patience was almost entirely 
exhausted, he was so lucky as to bring up, 
from the depth of six or seven fathoms, so much 
treasure, that he returned to England with the 
value of 200,000/. sterling. Of this sum he 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 101 

himself got about 16,000Z., others say. 20,000/., 
and the duke 90,000/. After he came back, 
some persons endeavored to persuade the king 
to seize both the ship and the cargo, under a 
pretence that Phipps, when he solicited for his 
majesty's permission, had not given accurate 
information respecting the business. 

But the king answered, with much greatness 
of mind, that he knew Phipps to be an honest 
man, and that he and his friends should share 
the whole among them, had he returned with 
double the value. His majesty even conferred 
upon him the honor of knighthood, to show how 
much he was satisfied with his conduct. We 
know not the construction of Phipps's appara- 
tus ; but of the old figures of a diving machine, 
that which approaches nearest to the diving- 
bell, is in a book on fortification, by Lorine, 
who describes a square box, bound round with 
iron, which is furnished with windows, and has 
a stool affixed to it for the diver. This ingeni- 
ous contrivance appears, however, to be older 
than that Italian ; at least, he does not pretend 
to be the inventor of it. 

After various attempts at improvement in 
this machine, by different people, succeeded 
Dr. Halley, whose bell may be sufficiently un- 
derstood from the following account : — It was 
made of wood, containing about sixty cubic 
feet in its concavity, and was in the form of a 
truncated cone, whose diameter at the top was 
three feet, and at the bottom five. It was so 
9* 



102 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

loaded with lead, that it could go down in a 
perpendicular direction, and no other. In the 
top w r as a window to let in light, and likewise 
a cock to let out the hot air that had been 
breathed ; and below, about a yard under the 
bell, was a stage, suspended by three ropes, 
each of which was charged with about one 
hundred weight to keep it steady. 

To supply air, the bell had a couple of bar- 
rels, so cased with lead as to sink when empty, 
each having a bung-hole in its lowest part to 
let in the water as the air in them condensed 
on their descent, and to let it out again when 
they were drawn up full from below. To a 
hole in the uppermost part of these was fixed 
a leathern trunk or hose, long enough to fall 
below the bung-hole, and kept down by a 
weight, in such a way that the air in the upper 
part of the barrels could not escape, unless the 
lower ends of these hose were lifted up. These 
air-barrels were made to rise and fall like two 
buckets in a well ; by means of these bands 
fresh air was continually supplied from above, 
and it was done with so much ease, that two 
men, with less than half their strength, could 
perform all the labor required. By an ad- 
ditional contrivance, it was found practicable 
for a diver to go out of the engine, to some dis- 
tance from it, the air being conveyed to him in 
a continual stream by small flexible pipes. 

Great improvements have been made in the 
diving-bell by Mr. Walker, Mr. Spaulding, and 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 103 

several other mechanical gentlemen ; yet it 
must be acknowledged, that with all these im- 
provements, this very curious machine appears 
to have been outdone, in some respects, by an 
invention of the famous Cornelius Drebell, if 
all be true that we are told about it. He con- 
trived not only a vessel to be rowed under 
water, but also a liquid that would supply the 
want of fresh air. The vessel was made for 
King James I., and carried twelve rowers, be- 
sides the passengers. It was tried in the river 
Thames, and one of the persons who was in 
the vessel when the experiment was made, 
told it to another who gave an account of it to 
the ingenious Mr. Boyle. 

As to the liquor, Mr. Boyle assures us, he 
discovered by a physician, who married Dre- 
bell's daughter, that it was used as occasion 
required, when the air in the submarine boat 
was clogged by the breath of the company, 
and rendered unfit for respiration ; at w T hich 
time, by unstopping a vessel full of this liquor, 
he could presently restore to the troubled air 
such a quantity of vital parts, as made it use- 
ful again for a considerable time. The secret 
of this liquor Drebell would never disclose to 
more than one person, who communicated the 
preparation to Mr. Boyle : but that gentleman 
seems to doubt whether the virtues of the li- 
quor were so effectual as reported. 



104 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 



FORMATION OF ICE. 

Ice is a brittle transparent body, formed of 
some fluid, frozen or fixed by cold. The spe- 
cific gravity of ice to water is as eight to nine ; 
or the specific gravity of water being one, that 
of ice is ninety-three ; hence, being lighter 
than water, it floats upon it. The specific 
gravity of ice was tried by Dr. Irving, in 
Phipps's voyage to the north pole ; who found 
that when a piece of the most dense ice which 
he could meet with was immersed in snow- 
water, the thermometer 34°, fourteen-fifteenth 
parts sunk under the surface of the water : in 
brandy just proof, it barely floated ; in recti- 
fied spirits of wine, it fell to the bottom at 
once and dissolved immediately. 

This rarefaction of ice has been supposed 
to be owing to the air-bubbles produced in ice 
while freezing ; these, being considerably large 
in proportion to the water frozen, render the 
ice so much specifically lighter. Accordingly, 
it is said, that a considerable quantity of air is 
lodged in the interstices of water, though it 
has not there any elastic property, on account 
of the disunion of its particles; but these par- 
ticles coming closer together, and uniting as 
the water freezes, light, expansive, and elastic 
air-bubbles are thus generated, and increase 
in bulk as the cold grows stronger ; whence 
of course the ice grows lighter, and these air- 
bubbles acquiring an elastic force, burst to 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 105 

pieces any vessel in which the water is closely 
contained. 

But snow-water, or any water being boiled 
over the fire, affords an ice more solid than 
ordinary, and with fewer bubbles. Pure wa- 
ter, long kept in vacuo, and frozen afterwards 
there, freezes much sooner, on being exposed 
to the same degree of cold, than water un- 
purged of its air and set in the open atmo- 
sphere. And the ice made of water thus di- 
vested of its air, will expand in freezing; 
though it is much harder, more solid and 
transparent, and more ponderous, than com- 
mon ice. 

But M. de Mairan, in a dissertation on ice, 
more justly attributes the increase of the bulk 
of the water under this form, principally to a 
different arrangement of its parts : the icy skin 
or water, being composed of filaments which 
are found to be joined constantly and regularly 
at an angle of 60°, and which, by this disposi- 
tion, occupy a greater volume than if they 
were parallel. He found the augmentation 
of the volume of water by freezing, and in 
different trials, a fourteenth, an eighteenth, 
and a nineteenth ; but when the water was 
previously purged of air, only a twenty-second 
part. Besides, ice, after its formation, con- 
tinues to expand by cold ; a piece of ice, which 
was at first only a fourteenth part specifically 
lighter than water, on being exposed some 
days to the frost, became a twelfth part light- 



100 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN'. 

er ; and thus he accounts for the bursting of 
ice in ponds. 

To make the most perfect ice, we should 
take the purest water, and perfectly purge it 
of its air, by the air-pump ; then freeze it in 
the severest frost, by means of Mr. Fahren- 
heit's contrivance. Thus we obtain an ice of 
the greatest hardness, density, purity, trans- 
parency, and gravity. 

It appears by an experiment of Dr. Hooke, 
in 1663, that ice refracts the light less than 
water; whence he infers, that the lightnqss of 
ice, which causes it to swim in water, is not 
produced merely by the small bubbles which 
are visible in it, but that it arises from the 
uniform constitution or general texture of the 
whole mass. 

Dr. Wollaston has fully confirmed the obser- 
vation of Dr. Hooke, by means of an accurate 
instrument which he has contrived for deter- 
mining the refraction of different substances ; 
so that ice must be considered as the least re- 
fractive of any known substances that are not 
aeriform. The refractive power of ice is stated 
by Dr. Wollaston, and by Dr. Young, by cal- 
culation, from balos, at 1.31. The capacity 
for heat of water to ice is as 1000 to 900 ; and 
the heat, in a given measure, is as 1000 to 840. 

In the mountains of Switzerland there are 
immense masses of ice, which, by the tradition 
and histories of the country, must have lain 
there many centuries. At certain times there 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 107 

happen cracks in these, and by these cracks 
the vast thickness of the masses may in some 
measure be guessed at ; some of them being 
three or four hundred ells deep, and yet none 
of them ever having gone through the whole 
thickness. 

The vast bodies of ice met with in the nor- 
thern seas, near Hudson's bay, are surprising ; 
some of them being immersed a hundred fath- 
oms or more under the surface of the ocean, 
and a fifth or sixth part above, and three or 
four miles in circumference. 

These floating mountains of ice owe their 
vast bulk and durable nature to a cause not 
considered by many; that is, to their not being 
common ice, but the ice of sea- water ; many 
experiments proving, that in acid and spiritu- 
ous liquors, when the frost has power over 
them, the watery parts only are affected, and 
the ice is tasteless, while the liquor remains 
concentrated, and much stronger than before 
at the bottom or in the centre. 

It was generally supposed that the saline 
liquors, and consequently sea-water, were af- 
fected, by freezing, in the same manner; that 
is, its watery part alone was frozen, and the salt 
separated from the part so congealed: but Dr. 
Lister alleges, that the ice formed of sea- water 
is really salt, and does contain sea-salt ; and 
finally that it is, by means of this salt con- 
tained in it, rendered more durable than com- 
mon ice. If a vial of salt-water be exposed 



108 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

to the air in frosty weather till flakes of ice 
are found in it, and then brought into a warm 
room, those flakes will remain even in that 
place a long time undissolved ; and if they are 
taken out and exposed at a small distance 
from the fire, they will not run into water as 
common ice would, but they will by degrees 
evaporate, and there will be left only a little 
white salt. 

Since sea-water, when frozen, thus forms a 
very durable ice, it appears easy to conceive, 
that the immense masses of such ice found in 
the northern seas should continue undissolved 
through the whole year, and at the return of 
the freezing season remaining of the same 
bigness as the first, they must of consequence 
then become much larger by the freezing of 
more ice about them ; and thus continuing to 
lose very little, and that only by accidents, 
and annually to increase a great deal, it is not 
wonderful that they become so large. 

But there have been different opinions with 
regard to the origin of those vast piles of ice, 
resembling whole islands, in the northern re- 
gions. Some ascribe them to snow, which 
falling in great abundance in these cold cli- 
mates, and melting in the sea, accumulates 
gradually, till those huge heaps are at length 
formed : but the more common opinion is, that 
this ice is formed from the fresh waters which 
flow from the neighboring lands. It is certain 
that great quantities of floating ice are dis- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 109 

charged by the river Oby, and kept in a state 
of constant agitation by it. 

Sir Robert Barker has particularly described 
the process of making ice in the East Indies, 
where, during his time, he had never seen any 
natural ice. For this purpose they dig, on a 
large open plain, three or four pits, about 
thirty feet square and two deep each ; the 
bottoms of which they cover about eight inches 
or a foot thick with sugar-cane, or the stems 
of the large Indian corn, dried. On this bed 
are placed in rows a number of small shallow 
unglazed earthen pans, formed of a very po- 
rous earth, a quarter of an inch thick, and 
about an inch and a quarter deep ; which, at 
the dusk of the evening, they fill with soft wa- 
ter that has been boiled. 

In the morning, before sunrise, the ice-ma- 
kers attend at the pits, and collect what was 
frozen, in baskets, which they convey to the 
place of preservation. This is generally pre- 
pared on some high dry situation, by sinking 
a pit fourteen or fifteen feet deep, lining it first 
with straw, and then with a coarse kind of 
blanketing. The ice is deposited in this pit, 
and beat down with rammers, till at length its 
own accumulated cold again freezes it, and 
forms one solid mass. The mouth of the pit 
is well secured from the exterior air with 
straw and blankets, and a thatched roof is 
thrown over the whole. The quantity of ice 
formed by the method above described, de- 
10 



110 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

pends on a light atmosphere, and clear serene 
weather. 



REMARKABLE ICEBERGS 

Icebergs are large bodies of ice filling the 
valleys between the high mountains in nor- 
thern latitudes. Among the most remarkable 
are those of the east coast of Spitzbergen. 
They are seven in number, but at considerable 
distances from each other : each fills the val- 
leys for tracts unknown, in a region totally 
inaccessible in the internal parts. The glaciers 
of Switzerland seem contemptible to these ; 
but present often a similar front into some 
lower valley. The last exhibits over the sea 
a front five hundred feet high, emulating the 
emerald in color; cataracts of melted snow 
precipitate down various parts, and black 
spiring mountains, streaked with white, bound 
the sides, and rise crag above crag as far as 
the eye can reach in the background. 

At times immense fragments break ofF, and 
tumble into the water with a most dreadful 
noise. Masses have been seen resembling a 
Gothic church, with arched windows and doors, 
and all the rich drapery of that style, composed 
of crystals of the richest sapphirine blue ; ta- 
bles with one or more feet ; and often immense 
flat-roofed temples, like those of Luxor on the 
Nile, supported by round transparent columns 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. Ill 

of cerulean hue, float by the astonished spec- 
tator. These icebergs are the creation of 
ages, and receive annually additional height 
by the falling of snows and rain, which often 
instantly freezes, and repairs the loss occa- 
sioned by the influence of the melting sun. 

The following account of an excursion to 
the Seven Icebergs, in July, 1818, is given by 
Captain Scoresby. A strong northwesterly 
swell having for some hours been beating on 
the shore, had loosened a number of fragments 
attached to the iceberg, and various heaps of 
broken ice denoted recent shoots of the sea- 
ward edge. " As we rowed," says he, " to- 
wards it, with a view of proceeding close to 
its base, I observed a few little pieces fall 
from the top ; and while my eye was fixed 
upon the place, an immense column, probably 
fifty feet square and one hundred and fifty-nine 
feet high, began to leave the parent ice at the 
top, and leaning majestically forward, with an 
accelerated velocity, fell with an awful crash 
into the sea. The water into which it plunged 
w-as converted into an appearance of vapor or 
smoke, like that from a furious cannonading. 
The noise was equal to that of thunder, which 
it nearly resembled. The column which fell 
was nearly square, and in magnitude resembled 
a church. It broke into thousands of pieces. 

" This iceberg was full of rents, as high as 
any of our people ascended upon it, extending 
in a direction perpendicularly downward, and 



112 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

dividing it into innumerable columns. The 
surface was very uneven, being furrowed and 
cracked all over. This roughness appeared 
to be occasioned by the melting of the snow, 
some streams of water being seen running 
over the surface ; and others could still be 
heard pursuing their course through subglacial 
channels to the front of the iceberg, where, in 
transparent streams, or in small cascades, they 
fell into the sea. In some places chasms of 
several yards in width were seen, in others 
they were only a few inches or feet across. 
One of the sailors, who attempted to walk 
across the iceberg, imprudently stepped into a 
narrow chasm filled up with snow to the gen- 
eral level. He instantly plunged up to his 
shoulders, and might, but for the sudden exten- 
sion of his arms, have been buried in the gulf." 

In the first ages of the Spitzbergen fishery, 
when the ships sometimes moored close to the 
shore, many serious disasters were occasioned 
by the fall of pieces of icebergs. One of the 
Russia Company's ships, which was on the 
whale fishery in the year 1619, was driven on 
shore in Bell Sound, by ice setting in from the 
sea. The captain, with most of his crew and 
boats, was absent at the time of the accident ; 
but, on the first intelligence, caused his boats 
to be hauled upon the ice, and proceeded on 
board to endeavor to get the ship off. 

After they had been using every endeavor 
for this purpose, during about an hour, a main 



WONDERS OF TPIE OCEAN. 113 

piece of an adjoining ice-cliff came down, and 
almost overwhelmed the vessel and her crew 
in its ruins. The shock must have been tre- 
mendous. The ice which fell struck the ship 
so high and so forcibly, that it carried away 
the foremast, broke the mainmast, sprung the 
bowsprit, and flung the ship over with such 
violence, that a piece of ordnance was thrown 
overboard from under the half deck ; and the 
captain and some of the crew were projected 
in the same way. The captain, notwithstand- 
ing his imminent danger, with fragments of 
ice flying in all directions, and the masts of 
the ship falling all around him, escaped, un- 
hurt ; but the mate and two more of the crew 
were killed, and many others were wounded. 



THE ROAR OF THE SEA 
Voice of the mighty deep, 

Piercing the drowsy night, 
Thou scarest the gentle sleep, 

Whose pinions will not light 
Where thou intrudest busy thought, 
With depths dark as thy secrets fraught. 

Thy mystic sounds I hear, 

Peal of unwanted things 
Of wonders far and near 

The hollow music rings, 
Its notes borne wild around the world, 
Where'er thy dark blue waves are curl'd, 
10* 



114 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

Oh no, I cannot sleep, 

Thou vast and glorious sea 
While thou dost thus the vigil keep 

Of thy great majesty, 
I think God's image near me is, 
In all its awful mysteries. 

Thou art a spirit, Ocean, thou ! 

Giant of earth and air, 
Spanning the universe ; and now, 

While making music here, 
Ten thousand leagues afar, thy wave 
Is rolling on an empire's grave ! 

Thine arm that shakes me here, 

Thunders upon the shore 
Of North, and South, and central sphere, 

Fuego, Labrador ; 
From flaming Equinox to frigid Pole, 
Belting the earth thy waters roll. 

Ingulfing mountains at a sweep 

Beneath their angry sway, 
Or raising islands from the deep 

In their triumphant way, 
Or murmuring sweet round Scian isles, 
In cadence soft as beauty's smiles. 

'Tis midnight ! — earth and air 
Are hush'd in lair and rest — 

Thy energy from thy long birth 
Hath never needed rest : 

Thou dost not tire — thou feel'st not toil— 

Thou art not form'd, like me, of soil. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 115 

Why dost thou thunder so ? 

What in thy depths profound, 
Thus as a strong man with his foe, 

Gives out that angry sound ; 
On earth no foe can ever be, 
Prince of creation, worthy thee ! 

Age thou hast never known — 
Thou shalt be young and free, 

Till God command thee give thine own, 
And all is dumb save thee ; 

And haply when the sun is blood, 

Unchanged shall be thy mighty flood. 



WORKS OF THE CORAL INSECT. 

Though some species of corals are found in 
all climates, they abound chiefly in the tropi- 
cal regions. In particular, the larger and 
more solid kinds seem to have chosen those 
climates for their habitation ; while the more 
tender and minute, the Flustras for example, 
occur in the colder seas. 

These animals vary from the size of a pin's 
head, or even less, to somewhat more than 
the bulk of a pea; and it is by the persevering 
efforts of creatures so insignificant, working 
in myriads, and working through ages, that 
the enormous structures in question are erected. 

Enormous we may well call them, when 
the great Coral Reef of New Holland alone is 



116 "WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

a thousand miles in length, and when its alti- 
tude, though yet scarcely fathomed in twenty 
places, cannot range to less than between one 
and two thousand feet. It is a mountain 
ridge, that would reach almost three times 
from one extremity of England to the other, 
with the height of Ingleborough, or that of the 
ordinary and prevailing class of Scottish moun- 
tains. And this is the work of insects, whose 
dimensions are less than those of a house fly. 
It is perfectly overwhelming. 

But what is even this ? The whole of the 
Pacific Ocean is crowded with islands of the 
same architecture, the produce of the same 
insignificant architects. An animal barely 
possessing life, scarcely appearing to possess 
volition, tied down to its narrow cell, ephemeral 
in existence, is daily, hourly, creating the hab- 
itations of men, of animals, of plants. It is 
founding a new continent ; it is constructing 
a new world. 

These are among the wonders of His mighty 
hand ; such are among the means which He 
uses to forward His ends of benevolence. Yet 
man, vain man, pretends to look down on the 
myriads of beings equally insignificant in ap- 
pearance, because he has not yet discovered 
the great offices which they hold, the duties 
which they fulfil, in the great order of nature. 

If we have said that the coral insect is cre- 
ating a new continent, we have not said more 
than the truth. Navigators now know that 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 117 

the Great Southern Ocean is not only crowded 
with those islands, but that it is crowded with 
submarine rocks of the same nature, rapidly 
growing up to the surface, where, at length 
overtopping the ocean, they are destined to 
form new habitations for man to extend his 
dominion. 

They grow and unite into circles and ridges, 
and ultimately they become extensive tracts. 
This process cannot cease while these animals 
exist and propagate. It must increase in an 
accelerating ratio ; and the result will be, 
that by the wider union of such islands, an 
extensive archipelago, and at length a conti- 
nent must be formed. 

This process is equally visible in the Red 
Sea. It is daily becoming less and less navi- 
gable, in consequence of the growth of its 
coral rocks ; and the day is to come, when, 
perhaps, one plain will unite the opposed shores 
of Egypt and Arabia. 

But let us here also admire the wonderful 
provision which is made, deep in the earth, for 
completing the work which these animals 
have commenced. And here we may note 
the contrast between the silent and unmarked 
labors of working myriads, operating by a 
universal and long ordained law, and the sud- 
den, the momentary eifort of a power, which, 
from the rarity of its exertion, seems to be es- 
pecially among the miraculous interpositions 
of the Creator. 



118 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

It is the volcano and the earthquake, that 
are to complete the structure which the coral 
insect has laid ; to elevate the mountain and 
form the valley, to introduce beneath the 
equator the range of climate which belongs to 
the temperate regions, and to lay the great 
hydraulic engine, by which the clouds are col- 
lected to fertilize the earth, which causes the 
springs to burst forth and the rivers to flow. 

And this is the work of one short hour. If 
the coral insect was not made in vain, neither 
was it for destruction that God ordained the 
volcano and the earthquake. Thus also, by 
means so opposed, so contrasted, is one single 
end attained. And that end is the welfare, 
the happiness of man. 

If man has but recently opened his eyes on 
the important facts which we have now stated, 
his chemistry is still unable to explain them. 
Whence all this rock ; this calcareous earth ? 
We need scarcely say that the corals all con- 
sist of calcareous earth, of lime united by ani- 
mal matter. The whole appears to be the 
creation of the animal. It is a secretion by its 
organs. Not only is the production of calca- 
reous earth proceeding daily in this manner, 
but by the actions of the myriad tribes of shell 
fish which are forming their larger habitations 
in the same manner, and from the same ma- 
terial. 

It is this which forms the calcareous beds 
of the ocean ; it is this, which has formed those 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 119 

enormous accumulations, in a former state of 
the world, which are now our mountains, the 
chalk and limestone of England, and the ridge 
of the Apennines. These are the productions of 
the inhabitants of an ancient ocean. Whence 
did it all come ? We may know some day ; 
but assuredly we do not now know. 

Thus it is that we prove, that all the lime- 
stone of the world has been the produce of 
animals, though how produced, we as yet 
know not. If a polype has constructed the 
great submarine mountain of New Holland, 
the thousand tribes and myriads of individu- 
als which inhabited the submarine Apennine 
might as easily, far more easily, have formed 
that ridge. We prove that this is the case, be- 
cause we find the shells in the mountains, be- 
cause we find the mountains made of shells. 



A FUNERAL AT SEA. 

The sun had just risen, and not a cloud ap- 
peared to obstruct his rays. A light breeze 
played on the bosom of the slumbering ocean. 
The stillness of the morning was only disturb- 
ed by the ripple of the water, or the diving of 
a flying-fish. It seemed as if the calm and 
noiseless spirit of the deep was brooding over 
the waters. 

The national flag displayed half way down 
the royal-mast, played in the breeze, uncon- 



120 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

scious of its solemn import. The vessel glided 
in stately serenity, and seemed tranquil as the 
element on whose surface she moved. She 
knew not the sorrows that were in her own 
bosom, and seemed to look down on the briny 
expanse beneath her in all the confidence 
and security of strength. 

To the minds of her brave crew it was a 
morning of gloom. They had been boarded 
by the angel of death ; and the forecastle now 
contained all that was mortal of his victim. 
His soul had gone to its final audit. Grouped 
around the windlass, and left to their own re- 
flections, the hardy sons of the ocean mingled 
their sympathies with each other. They seem- 
ed to think of their own immortality. Con- 
science was at his post. And I believe that 
their minds were somewhat impressed with 
the realities of eternity. 

They spoke of the virtues of their deceased 
messmate — of his honesty, his sensibility, his 
generosity. One remembered to have seen 
him share the last dollar of his hard-earned 
wages with a distressed shipmate. All could 
attest his liberality. They spoke too of his 
accomplishments as a sailor ; of the nerve of 
his arm, and the intrepidity of his soul. They 
had seen him in an hour of peril, when the 
winds of heaven were let loose in all their 
fury, and destruction was on the wing, seize 
the helm and hold the ship securely within his 
grasp, till the danger had passed by. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 121 

They would have indulged longer in their 
reveries, but they were summoned to prepare 
for the rites of sepulture, and pay the last 
honors to their dead companion. The work 
of preparation was commenced with heavy 
hearts and with many a sigh. A rude cof- 
fin was soon constructed, and the body de- 
posited within it. All was ready for the final 
scene. The main hatches were his bier. A 
spare sail was his pall. His surviving com- 
rades in their tar-stained habiliments stood 
around. 

All were silent. The freshening breeze 
moaned through the cordage. The main top- 
sail was hove to the mast. The ship paused 
on her course and stood still. The funeral 
service began ; and as " we commit this body 
to the deep" was pronounced, I heard the knell 
of the ship bell — I heard the plunge of the 
coffin. I saw tears start from the eyes of the 
generous tars. My soul melted within me as 
I reverted to the home-scenes of him whom 
we buried in the deep — to hopes that were to 
be dashed with wo — to joys that were to be 
drowned in lamentation. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SHARK. 
Of all the animals which inhabit the deep, 
the shark is the fiercest and the most vora- 
cious ; the smallest of this kind is considered 
11 



122 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

formidable by those fish which greatly exceed 
it in size ; though the white shark may some- 
times rank with the whale in magnitude, as 
many of them measure from twenty to thirty 
feet ; and we are told that a human body has 
been found in their inside. The head is large, 
and somewhat flattened ; the snout long ; and 
the eyes fierce, extensive, and full of fire. The 
teeth are most terrible instruments of destruc- 
tion, as the animal is known to be furnished 
with six rows, that amount to no less than a 
hundred and forty-four in number, which, when 
it is at rest, lie quite flat in the mouth ; but, 
the moment it has the design of seizing upon 
its victim, these formidable weapons are erected 
in rows. 

The shark is doubtless the fiercest depreda- 
tor, and the greatest tyrant, that inhabits the 
deep ; his formidable figure is calculated to 
intimidate, and his courage and activity are 
scarcely to be conceived. No other fish can 
swim with equal agility ; for he is able to out- 
strip the fleetest ships, and frequently plays 
round them with sportive festivity, as if ex- 
pecting to be regaled with some part of their 
contents. 

A sailor who was bathing in the Mediter- 
ranean, near Antibes, in the year 1744, per- 
ceived one of these dreadful monsters approach- 
ing, and, anticipating his fate by the extension 
of its jaws, in an agony of terror called out to 
his companions instantaneously to throw him 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 123 

out a rope. The rope, of course, was imme- 
diately thrown to him, and in eager agony he 
secured his hold ; but in the very moment his 
messmates w T ere dragging him to a place of 
security, the insidious tyrant sprang upon his 
leg, and grasping it between its sharp-edged 
fangs, in a moment severed it from his bleeding 
frame. 

A Guinea captain was, by stress of weather, 
driven into the harbor of Belfast ; and his un- 
fortunate captives, when brought upon the 
deck for air, had many of them reposed their 
sorrows in the deep, from an idea that, by ter- 
minating their existence, they should be reuni- 
ted to their family and friends. The savage 
monster under whose tyranny they were placed, 
enraged at the loss of so large a share of his 
prize, was resolved to make death appear in a 
more formidable shape than had hitherto been 
presented to the minds of those unfortunate 
victims of cruelty and oppression, and therefore 
gave orders that a young female, whom he 
heard had an intention of committing suicide, 
should gradually be let dowm with ropes from 
the side of the ship. 

The minions of authority obeyed his orders, 
and the unresisting victim patiently submitted 
to his caprice ; but at the moment her head 
alone remained above the surface of the water, 
she was heard to utter a most agonizing scream. 
The surrounding element was dyed with crim- 
son ; and the sailors, alarmed and astonished 



124 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

at the sight, instantly drew the body out of the 
water, when it proved that a shark had divided 
it from the lower part of the sides. This is 
only one of the many instances that might be 
related, of the rapacious appetite of this de- 
structive fish ; but it is sufficient to create that 
antipathy and aversion which are universally 
conceived against this destructive race. 

The usual methods which sailors have con- 
trived to take them, is by baiting a large hook 
with a piece of beef or pork, which is thrown 
into the sea, attached to a stout rope, strength- 
ened near the hook by an iron chain. The 
shark for some time surveys the magnet, as if 
fearful of the weapon, which is cautiously con- 
cealed, until the sailors, anxious to provoke it 
to destruction, pretend to draw the bait from 
the bottom to the stream, when, darting for- 
ward with furious impetuosity, he swallows 
the hook and part of the chain. 

This is the manner in which Europeans de- 
stroy this tyrant : but the negroes along the 
African coast attack him merely with a knife ; 
and, as the shark is obliged to turn before he 
can seize his opponent, during that action the 
negro plunges his knife into its sides. Upon 
the whole, the shark, when living, is a formi- 
dable animal ; and, when it is dead, is of very 
little use, for its flesh can scarcely be digested 
by the stomach of a negro ; but from the liver 
there may be extracted about three or four 
quarts of oil. Some imaginary virtues have 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 125 

been ascribed to the brain ; and the skin is 
used by cabinet-makers for polishing their 
work. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE WHALE. 

The whale is the largest of all animals of 
whose history we have any certain account. 
It is sometimes found ninety feet long ; and 
these which inhabit the torrid zone, are said 
to be much larger. The size of the head is 
about one third of the whole fish. The under 
lip is much broader than the upper, which is 
narrow and oblong. The tongue is a soft, 
spongy, fat substance, sometimes yielding five 
or six barrels of oil. The gullet or swallow is 
very small for so large an animal, not exceed- 
ing four inches in width ; but that is propor- 
tioned to the food it eats, which is a particular 
kind of small snail ; or, as some say, it varies 
its repast with the medusa, or sea-blubber, an 
insect which is found in the sea. 

It has two orifices in the middle of the head 
through which it spouts water to a great height, 
and, when it is disturbed or wounded, with a 
noise like thunder. Its eyes are not larger than 
those of an ox, and placed at a great distance 
from each other. There is no fin on the back ; 
but on the sides, under each eye, are two large 
ones, which serve it for rowing. The color 
varies ; the back of some being red ; others 
11* 



126 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

black ; and another variety is mottled. The 
belly is generally white. They are extremely 
beautiful in the water. The skin is very smooth 
and slippery. 

Under the skin, the whale is covered with 
fat or blubber, from six to twelve inches thick, 
which sometimes yields from one to two hun- 
dred barrels of oil. All Europe is supplied 
with oil for lamps, and many other purposes, 
from this blubber. The flesh is red and coarse, 
somewhat like beef; but the Greenlanders eat 
it ; and the Icelanders soak it in sour whey for 
food. 

Spermaceti is prepared from the oil found in 
the head of the whale. It is melted over a 
gentle fire, and put into moulds, like those 
wherein sugar loaves are formed. When cold 
and drained, it is taken out and melted over 
again, till it be well purified and whitened. It 
is then cut with a knife into flakes ; and is 
used as a medicine, for various complaints of 
the lungs. It is also used for making candles, 
which are but little inferior to those made of 
wax. 

The substance called whalebone adheres to 
the upper jaw, and is formed of thin parallel 
laminse, called whiskers. Some of the longest 
are four yards in length. They are surround- 
ed by long, strong hair, to guard the tongue 
from being hurt, and also to prevent the return 
of their food, when they discharge the water 
out of their mouths. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 127 



THE WHALE FISHERY. 

Whales are chiefly caught in the North Sea. 
The largest sort are found about Greenland, or 
Spitzbergen. At the first discovery of that 
country, whales, not being used to be disturbed, 
frequently came into the very bays, and were 
accordingly killed almost close to the shore ; so 
that the blubber being cut off, was immediately 
boiled into oil on the spot. The ships in those 
times took in nothing but the pure oil and the 
fins ; and all the business was executed in the 
country ; by which means, a ship could bring 
home the product of many more whales than 
she can according to the present method of 
conducting this trade. The fishery also was 
then so plentiful, that they were obliged some- 
times to send other ships to fetch off the oil 
they had made ; the quantity being more than 
the fishing ships could bring away. 

Time, however, and change of circumstances, 
have effected that alteration in the concern, 
which, in every similar case, it is reasonable to 
expect. The ships coming in such numbers 
from Holland, Denmark, Hamburgh, and other 
northern countries, in addition to the English, 
who were the first discoverers of Greenland ; 
the whales, disturbed, and gradually, as fish 
often do, forsaking the place, were not to be 
killed so near the shore as before ; but are now 
found, and have been so ever since, in the 



128 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

openings and spaces among the ice, where they 
have deep water, and where they go sometimes 
a great many leagues from the shore. 

The whale fishery begins in May, and con- 
tinues all June and July ; and wmether the 
ships have good or bad success, they must come 
away and get clear of the ice by the end of 
August ; so that in the month of September, 
at farthest, they may be expected home : but a 
ship that meets with a fortunate and early 
fishery in May, may return in June or July. 

The manner of taking whales at present, is 
as follows : as soon as the fishermen hear the 
whale below, they cry out, ' Fall !' ' Fall !' and 
every ship gets out its long-boat, in each of 
which there are six or seven men. They row 
till they come pretty near the whale ; then the 
harpooner strikes it with the harpoon. This 
requires great dexterity ; for through the bone 
of his head there is no striking ; but near his 
spout there is a soft piece of flesh, into which 
the iron sinks with ease. 

As soon as he is struck, they take care to 
give him rope enough : otherwise, wiien he goes 
down, as he frequently does, he would inevita- 
bly sink the boat. This rope he draws with 
such violence, that, if it were not well water- 
ed, it would, by its friction against the sides 
of the boat, be soon set on fire. The line fast- 
ened to the harpoon is six or seven fathoms 
long, and is called the forerunner. It is made 
of the finest and softest hemp, that it may slip 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 129 

the easier. To this they join a heap of lines, 
of ninety or a hundred fathoms each ; and 
when there are not enough in one long-boat 
they borrow from another. The man at the 
helm observes which w r ay the rope goes, and 
steers the boat accordingly, that it may run 
exactly out before ; for the whale runs away 
with the line with so much rapidity, that he 
would overset the boat, if it were not kept 
straight. 

When the whale is struck, the other long- 
boats row before, and observe which way the 
line stands, and sometimes pull it. If they feel 
it stiff, it is a sign the whale still pulls in 
strength ; but if it hangs loose, and the boat 
lies equally high, before and behind, upon the 
w^ater, they pull it in gently, but take care to 
coil it so that the whale may have it again 
easily, if he recovers strength. They take care, 
however, not to give him too much line ; be- 
cause he sometimes entangles it about a rock, 
and pulls out the harpoon. The fat whales do 
not sink as soon as dead ; but the lean ones 
do, and come up some days afterwards. 

As long as they see whales, they lose no time 
in cutting up what they have taken ; but keep 
fishing for others. When they see no more, or 
have taken enough, they begin with taking off 
the fat and whiskers, in the following manner: 
the whale being lashed along side, they lay it 
on one side, and put two ropes, one at the head, 
and the other in the place of the tail, which, 



130 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

together with the fins, is struck off, as soon as 
he is taken, to keep those extremities above 
water. On the off side of the whale are two 
boats, to receive the pieces of fat, utensils, and 
men that might otherwise fall into the water 
on that side. 

These precautions being taken, three or four 
men, with irons at their feet, to prevent slip- 
ping, get on the whale, and begin to cut out 
pieces of about three feet thick, and eight long, 
which are hauled up at the capstan or wind- 
lass. When the fat is all got off, they cut off 
the whiskers of the upper jaw with an axe. 
Before they cut, they are all lashed, to keep 
them firm ; which also facilitates the cutting, 
and prevents them from falling into the sea. 

When on board, five or six of them are bun- 
dled together, and properly stowed ; and, after 
all is got oft", the carcass is turned adrift, and 
devoured by the bears, who are very fond of 
it. In proportion as the large pieces of fat are 
cut off, the rest of the crew are employed in 
slicing them smaller, and picking out all the 
lean. When this is prepared, they stow it un- 
der the deck, where it lies till the fat of all the 
whales is on board : then, cutting it still smaller, 
they put it up in tubs in the hold, cramming 
them very full and close. Nothing now re- 
mains but to sail homeward, wdiere the fat is 
to be boiled and melted down into train-oil. 

The American w r hale fishery was commenced 
in Nantucket, an island in Massachusetts which 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 131 

looks out upon the Atlantic, and receives upon 
its shores the whole sweep of the ocean. Colo- 
nized, as it first was, by an adventurous and 
hardy race of settlers from other parts of Mas- 
sachusetts, the colonists had ample means and 
motives to push their enterprises upon the wa- 
ters of its neighboring coasts. The first effort 
made was upon a whale found in their own 
harbor. The success of this adventure in- 
duced the people of that place to commence 
the enterprise of taking whales as a regular 
business, these animals being at that time very 
numerous around the coast ; and, as early as 
1672, we find the inhabitants entering into 
formal arrangements for carrying on the busi- 
ness. The people of Cape Cod, also, early em- 
barked with much success in the same opera- 
tions. 

In order to show the progress of the whale 
fishery in this country, it may be proper here 
to state, that according to Mr. Pitkin, the quan- 
tity of sperm oil brought to our ports in 1831, 
was 109,200 barrels ; and of common oil, 
114,341 ; and of whalebone, 1,029,690 pounds, 
the total value being 3,488,632 dollars ; that 
into the single ports of New Bedford and Nan- 
tucket, there were brought in the year 1833, 
76,631 barrels of sperm oil, 84,596 barrels of 
common oil, and 729,759 pounds of whale bone ; 
to which when we add the amount brought into 
the other ports during that year, it equals the 
sum of 4,046,900 dollars. Since the period 



132 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

named, the business has been increasing, and 
has been got up at various other points where 
there were the requisite facilities. 

The right whale, which, with the sperm, 
constitutes the principal object pursued by the 
whale fishery, is of the largest class. Many 
which were taken in 1761, in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, it is stated, produced two hundred 
and thirty barrels of oil ; and as the ships then 
employed did not exceed sixty tons burden, the 
capture of a single whale constituted a full 
cargo. The bone from a whale of this size, 
sometimes weighed 3000 pounds, each of which 
was worth a dollar, and the slabs were fre- 
quently ten feet in length. 

In the importance of the whale fishery as 
augmenting the wealth of the country, it is 
not equalled by any other species of traffic, 
and presents a marked example of productive 
labor. It adds to the stock of national wealth 
by drawing from the great reservoir of the 
ocean an immense value to the public, both for 
use and exchange. Hence it should be nur- 
tured as a strong arm of domestic industry, 
and a severe but valuable nursery of that noble 
and hardy class, the seamen of the country. 



THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 

About four miles above the cataract we be- 
gan to see the mist, raised by the agitation of 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 133 

the water, ascending in the form of a large 
white cloud, and continually varying its aspect, 
as it v/as blown by the wind into every fan- 
tastical shape. At times, it almost entirely 
disappeared ; at others, it burst suddenly upon 
the sight ; and, rising slowly, with great so- 
lemnity and grandeur, dispersed its magnificent 
volumes into the atmosphere. Nothing could 
afford us more noble anticipations of the splen- 
dor of the scene, to which we were approaching. 
After dining at Chippeway, we proceeded 
to the cataract. About a mile from our inn, 
we were presented with one of the noblest 
prospects in the world ; the more impressive, 
as none of us had ever heard it mentioned. 
Here the immense bed of limestone, which 
fills this country, begins rapidly to decline. A 
number of shelves, parallel to each other, cross 
the river obliquely, almost to the American 
shore. They are, however, irregular, broken, 
and. wild ; formed into long and short ranges, 
sudden prominences, and pointed rocks. Over 
this ragged and finely varied surface, the 
river rolls its amazing mass of waters with a 
force and grandeur, of which my own mind 
had never before formed a conception. The 
torrent is thrown up with immeasurable vio- 
lence, as it rushes down the vast declivity, be- 
tween two and three miles in breadth, into a 
thousand eminences of foam. All the magnifi- 
cence of w r ater scenery shrunk in a moment 
into playthings of Lilliput. 
12 



134 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

When we came over against the cataract 
we secured our horses, and descended the an- 
cient bank of the river, a steep of one hundred 
and fifty or two hundred feet. The foot- way 
which conducted us was of clay ; and, having 
been wet by the preceding rain, was so slip- 
pery that we could hardly keep our footing. 
At the bottom we found a swamp, encumbered 
with trees, bushes, mire, and water. After 
stooping, struggling, and sliding, near a quar- 
ter of a mile, we came to the Table Rock ; a 
part of the stratum over which the river de- 
scends, and the edge of the precipice which at 
this place forms the British bank of the river. 
This rock is at a small distance from the cata- 
ract, and presents the spectator with as perfect 
a view as can be imagined. 

These falls are situated twenty-one miles, 
reckoned on the British, and twenty-three, 
reckoned on the American arm of the river, 
(where it is divided by Grand Isle,) from Buf- 
falo, two miles less from the outlet of Lake 
Erie, and fourteen miles from the entrance of 
the river, into Lake Ontario, between Newark 
and Fort Niagara. The river bends, on the 
American side, about twelve miles to the north- 
west, and, on the British side, about four, im- 
mediately below Navy Island. It is here little 
less than four miles wide, and sufficiently deep 
for any navigation. It gradually becomes nar- 
rower as it approaches the falls, but immedi- 
ately above them its breadth is not far from 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 135 

three miles. From one mile and three quar- 
ters above, or opposite to the Stedman farm, 
it begins to descend with a rapid and power- 
ful current. At the falls it turns instantly, 
with a right angle, to the northeast, and in a 
moment is contracted to three quarters of a 
mile. 

Below the falls the river is not more, and in 
some places it is less, than half a mile in 
breadth. Its depth here is great, being said 
to exceed three hundred feet ; and its current 
is violent, proportionally to this contraction. 

The cataract is formed by the brow of that 
vast bed of limestone which is the base of all 
this country. Here its surface is, perhaps, one 
hundred and fifty feet beneath the common 
surface of the earth ; elsewhere it approaches 
nearer. The brow extends, as I am informed, 
into the county of Ontario on the east, and on 
the west into Upper Canada a distance which 
is unknown. The great falls of the Genesee 
are formed by the same brow. 

On the river Niagara it approaches near to 
Queenstown, at the distance of seven miles 
below the cataract. The whole height of the 
ledge above Lake Ontario is estimated by Mr. 
Ellicott to be four hundred and ten feet. At 
Lake Erie the common level of the shore is 
about twenty feet above its waters. This level 
continues to the falls, and probably to the 
neighborhood of Queenstown ; the river gradu- 
ally declining, till it arrives at the rapids. 



130 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

Here, within the distance of one mile and three 
fourths, it declines fifty-seven feet. 

The precipice, over which the cataract de- 
scends, is, according to Major Prescott's survey, 
one hundred and fifty-one feet. This vast de- 
scent is perpendicular, except that the rocks 
are hollowed underneath the surface, particu- 
larly on the western side. The length of the 
precipice is three fourths of a mile. 

At the cataract the river is divided by an 
island, whose brow is perpendicular, and nearly 
coincident with the common line of the preci- 
pice. It occupies about one fifth or one sixth 
of the whole breadth. This island, it is re- 
ported, was visited by General Putnam during 
the last Canadian war, or that which began in 
the year 1755. A wager, it is said, was laid, 
that no man in that part of the army would 
dare to attempt a descent upon it. Putnam, 
with his customary resolution, undertook the 
enterprise. Having made fast a strong rope 
to a batteau, he proceeded a considerable dis- 
tance up the stream. Then, taking some stout, 
skilful rowers, he put out into the river directly 
above the island. The rope, in the mean time, 
was held firmly by several muscular soldiers 
on the shore. The batteau descended securely 
enough to the island, and, the enterprise being 
accomplished, was drawn again to the shore 
by his attendants.* 

* A bridge now connects the island with the American shore. 
1819. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 137 

The noise of this cataract has often been the 
object of admiration, and the subject of loose 
and general description. We heard it distinct- 
ly, when crossing the ferry, at the distance of 
eighteen miles ; the wind blowing from the 
northwest, almost at right angles with the di- 
rection of the sound. Two gentlemen, who 
had lived some time at York, on the north side 
of Lake Ontario, and who were my compan- 
ions in the stage, informed me that it was not 
unfrequently heard there. The distance is 
fifty miles. 

The note or tone, if I may call it such, is the 
same with the hoarse - roar of the ocean ; being 
much more grave, or less shrill, than that which 
proceeds from other objects of the same nature. 
It is not only louder, but seems as if it were 
expanded to a singular extent ; as if it filled 
the atmosphere, and spread over all the sur- 
rounding country. The only variety which 
attends it, is a continual undulation, resem- 
bling that of long musical chords, when struck 
with a forcible impulse. These undulations 
succeed each other with great rapidity. 

When two persons stand very near to each 
other, they can mutually hear their ordinary 
conversation ; when removed to a small distance, 
they are obliged to halloo ; and, when remov- 
ed a little farther, cannot be heard at all. 
Every other sound is drowned in the tempest 
of noise made by the water, and all else in the 
regions of nature appears to be dumb. This 
12* 



138 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

noise is a vast thunder, filling the heavens, 
shaking the earth, and leaving the mind, al- 
though perfectly conscious of safety, and af- 
fected with a sense of grandeur only, lost and 
astonished, swelling with emotions which en- 
gross all its faculties, and mock the power of 
utterance. 

The strength of this sound may be illustrated 
in the following manner : The roar of the ocean 
on the beach, south of Long Island, is some- 
times heard in New Haven, at the distance of 
forty miles. The cataract of Niagara is heard 
ten miles farther. 

I All cataracts produce greater or less quan- 
tities of mist ; a proof, to the common eye, that 
vapor may rise by mere agitation. The mist 
raised here is proportioned to the greatness of 
the cause. A large, majestic cloud, visible, 
from an advantageous position, for a great 
number of miles, rises without intermission 
from the whole breadth of the river below ; 
and, ascending with a slow, solemn progress, 
partly spreads itself down the stream by an 
arching, and wonderfully magnificent motion ; 
and partly mounts towards heaven, blown into 
every wild and fantastical form ; when, sepa- 
rating into smaller clouds, it successively floats 
away through the atmosphere. 

Nearest to the shore a considerable quantity 
of this vapor impinges against the rock ; and, 
continually accumulating, descends in a con- 
stant shower of drops and little streams. A 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

person standing under the shelving part of these 
rocks, would in a short time be wet to the skin. 

In the mist, produced by all cataracts, rain- 
bows are ordinarily seen in a proper position, 
when the sun shines ; always indeed, unless 
when the vapor is too rare. Twice, while 
we were here, the sun broke through the 
clouds, and lighted up, in a moment, the most 
lucid rainbow which I ever beheld. In each 
instance the phenomenon continued a long 
time, and left us in perfect leisure to enjoy its 
splendors. It commenced near the precipice, 
and extended, so far as I was able to judge, at 
least a mile down the river. 

When the eye was fixed upon any spot, com- 
mencing a few rods above the precipice, that 
is, where the cataract begins to be formed, the 
descending water assumes everywhere a cir- 
cular figure from the place where it begins to 
descend to that where it falls perpendicularly. 
The motion here remarkably resembles that of 
a wheel rolling towards the spectator. The 
section is about one fifth or one sixth part of 
a circle, perhaps twelve rods in diameter. The 
effect of this motion of so vast a body of water, 
equally novel and singular, was exquisitely 
delightful. It was an object of inexpressible 
grandeur, united with intense beauty of figure ; 
a beauty greatly heightened by the brilliant 
and most elegant sea-green of the waters, 
fading imperceptibly into a perfect white at 
the brow of the precipice. 



140 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

The emotions excited by the view of this 
stupendous scene are unutterable. When the 
spectator casts his eye over the long ranges of 
ragged cliffs, which form the shores of this 
great river below the cataract ; cliffs one hun- 
dred and fifty feet in height, bordering it with 
lonely gloom and grandeur, and shrouded 
everywhere by shaggy forests ; when he sur- 
veys the precipice above, stretching with so 
great an amplitude, rising to so great a height, 
and presenting in a single view its awful brow, 
with an impression not a little enhanced by 
the division which the island forms between 
the two great branches of the river ; when he 
contemplates the enormous mass of water, 
pouring from this astonishing height in sheets 
so vast, and with a force so amazing ; when, 
turning his eye to the flood beneath, he be- 
holds an immense convulsion of the mighty 
mass, and listens to the majestic sound which 
fills the heavens ; his mind is overwhelmed by 
thoughts too great, and by impressions too 
powerful, to permit the current of the intellect 
to flow with serenity. 

The disturbance of his mind resembles that 
of the waters beneath him. His bosom swells 
with emotions never felt, his thoughts labor 
in a manner never known before. The pleas- 
ure is exquisite, but violent. The conceptions 
are clear and strong, but rapid and tumultuous. 
The struggle within is discovered by the fixed- 
pess of his position, the deep solemnity of his 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 141 

aspect, and the intense gaze of his eye. When 
he moves, his motions appear uncontrived. 
When he is spoken to, he is silent ; or, if he 
speaks, his answers are short, wandering from 
the subject, and indicating that absence of 
mind which is the result of laboring contem- 
plation. 

All these impressions are heightened to a 
degree which cannot be conjectured by the 
slowly ascending volumes of mist, rolled and 
tossed into a thousand forms by the varying 
blast, and by the splendor of the rainbow suc- 
cessively illuminating their bosom. At the 
same time, the spectator cannot but reflect, 
that he is surveying the most remarkable ob- 
ject on the globe. Nor will he fail to remem- 
ber, that he stands upon a river, in most re- 
spects equal, and in several of high distinction 
superior, to every other ; or that the inland 
seas which it empties, the mass of water which 
it conveys, the commercial advantages which 
it furnishes, and the grandeur of its disruption 
in the spring, are all suitable accompaniments 
of so sublime and glorious a scene. 



THE ROARING CASCADE, JAMAICA. 

In St. Anne's parish, Jamaica, is a very re- 
markable cascade, or, more properly speaking, 
a cataract, formed by the White River, which 
is of considerable magnitude, and, after a 



142 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

course of about 12 miles among the moun- 
tains, precipitates itself in a fall of about 300 
feet or more, obliquely measured, with such a 
hoarse and thundering noise, as to be heard at 
a great distance. Viewed from below, the 
adjutage appears to be a body of water, of 
small bulk, issuing between a tuft of wood ; 
but, as it continues its descent, the breadth 
gradually increases, until it reaches the bot- 
tom, where it forms a beautiful circular basin, 
and then flows away in a serpentine course 
towards the sea. 

Through the whole descent it is broken and 
interrupted by a regular climax of steps, of a 
stalactitic matter, incrusted over a kind of soft 
chalky stone, which yields easily to the chisel. So 
vast a discharge of water, thus wildly agitated 
by the steepness of the fall, dashing and foam- 
ing from step to step, with all the impetuosity 
and rage peculiar to this element, exhibits an 
awful, pleasing scene. But the grandeur of it 
is astonishingly heightened by the fresh sup- 
plies which it receives after the rainy seasons. 

At such times, the roaring of the flood, re- 
verberated from the adjacent rocks, trees, and 
hills ; the tumultuous violence of the torrent, 
tumbling headlong with resistless fury ; and 
the gloom of the overhanging wood, contrasted 
with the soft serenity of the sky, the silvery 
glitter of the spray, the flight of birds skim- 
ming over the lofty summit of the mountain, 
and the placid surface of the basin below, form 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 143 

altogether an assemblage of subjects, the most 
happily mingled, and beyond the power of 
painting to express. 

Wild o'er the brim, with many a torrent swell'd, 
And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, 
At last the roused-up river pours along, 
Resistless ! roaring ! dreadful ! — Down it comes 
From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild, 
Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far. — 
Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads, 
Calm, sluggish, silent ; — till again constrain'd 
Between two meeting crags, it bursts away, 
Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream. 
There gathering triple force, rapid and deep, 
It boils! and wheels! and foams ! and thunders through I 

Thomson. 



FALLS OF MONTMORENCY. 

The Montmorency empties itself at the dis- 
tance of about eight miles northeast of Quebec, 
into the great river St. Lawrence, to the coast 
of which it gradually descends from the ele- 
vated mountain on which it has its source. 
At a station called La Motte, situated on the 
northern extremity of a sloping ground, its 
waters diffuse themselves into shallow cur- 
rents, interrupted by rocks which break them 
into foam, and accompanied by murmuring 
sounds, which enliven the solitude and solemn 
stillness prevailing throughout the surrounding 
forests and desolate hills. Farther down, its 
channel is bounded by precipitous rocks, its 



144 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

breadth becoming extremely contracted, and 
the rapidity of its current proportionably aug- 
mented. 

At a place called " the natural steps" there 
are several beautiful cascades of ten or twelve 
feet. These steps, which are extremely regu- 
lar, have been gradually formed by the acces- 
sion of waters the river receives in its progress, 
at the breaking up of winter, by the melting 
of the snows. From the middle of April to 
the end of May, its waters roll with increasing 
height and rapidity. Being powerfully im- 
pelled in their course, they insinuate them- 
selves between the strata of the horizontal 
rock, vast fragments of which are detached by 
the rushing violence of the sweeping torrent. 

On the eastern side, the bank, which is al- 
most perpendicular, and fifty feet high, is sur- 
mounted by lofty trees. The southwest bank 
rises beyond the steps, and terminates in a 
precipice. On the opposite side, the bank is 
regular and of a singular shape, resembling 
the ruin of an elevated wall. The trees, by 
which the banks are enclosed, united with the 
effect produced by the foaming currents, and 
the scattered masses of stone, form a scene 
wild and picturesque. The stream now taking 
a southern direction, is augmented in its ve- 
locity, and forms a grand cascade interrupted 
by huge rocks. 

A quarter of a mile farther down, a similar 
effect is produced. After exhibiting an agree- 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 145 

able variety through its course, the river is 
precipitated, in an almost perpendicular direc- 
tion, over a rock two hundred and fifty feet in 
height. Wherever it touches the rock, it falls 
in white clouds of rolling foam ; and beneath, 
where it is propelled with uninterrupted gra- 
vitation, it forms numerous flakes, like wool 
or cotton, which are gradually protracted in 
the descent, until they are received into the 
boiling profound abyss beneath. 

The effect from the summit of the cliff is 
awfully grand and truly sublime. The pro- 
digious depth of the descent of the waters of 
this surprising fall ; the brightness and volu- 
bility of their course ; the swiftness of their 
movement through the air ; and the loud and 
hollow noise emitted from the basin, swelling 
with incessant agitation from the weight of 
the dashing waters, forcibly combine to attract 
the attention, and to impress the mind of the 
spectator with sentiments of grandeur and 
elevation. The clouds of rising vapor, which 
assume the prismatic colors, contribute to en- 
liven the scene. They fly off from the fall in 
the form of a revolving sphere, emitting with 
velocity pointed flakes of spray, which spread 
in receding, until they are interrupted by the 
neighboring banks, or dissolved in the atmo- 
sphere. 

The breadth of the fall is one hundred feet ; 
and the basin, which is bounded by steep cliffs, 
forms an angle of forty-five degrees. When 
13 



146 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

viewed from the beach, the cataract is seen 
to flow with resplendent beauty down the 
gloomy precipice, the summit of which is 
crowned with woods. The diffusion of the 
stream to the breadth of fifteen hundred feet, 
and the various small cascades produced by 
the inequalities of its rocky bed, on its way to 
the river St. Lawrence, display a very singular 
and pleasing combination. 



FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 

The most prominent features of this great 
American river, which is fed by so many 
streams, having their sources in a great variety 
of soils and climates, are its wonderful falls, 
rapids, and cascades, the following connected 
view of which is abstracted from the very 
accurate draught and survey made by Captain 
Clarke. 

This river is nine hundred feet wide at the 
point where it receives the waters of Medicine 
River, which is four hundred and one feet in 
width. The united current continues five 
thousand four hundred and twelve feet, some- 
what more than a mile, to a small rapid on 
the north side, from which it gradually widens 
to four thousand two hundred feet, and at the 
distance of nine thousand and forty-two feet, 
(nearly a mile and three-fourths,) reaches the 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 147 

head of the Rapids, narrowing as it approaches 
them. 

Here the hills on the north, which had with- 
drawn from the bank, closely border the river, 
which for the space of a mile makes its way 
over the rocks with a descent of thirty feet : 
in this course, the current is contracted to six- 
teen hundred and forty feet, and after throw- 
ing itself over a small pitch of five feet forms 
a beautiful cascade of twenty-six feet five 
inches ; this does not, however, fall immedi- 
ately perpendicular, being stopped by a part 
of the rock, which projects at about one third 
of the distance. 

After descending this fall, and passing the 
Cotton-wood island, on which the eagle has 
fixed its nest, the river goes on for eight thou- 
sand seven hundred and seventy-eight feet 
(more than a mile and a half) over rapids and 
little falls, the estimated descent of which is 
thirteen feet six inches, till it is joined by a 
large fountain boiling up underneath the rocks 
near the edge of the river, into which it falls 
with a cascade of eight feet. It is of the most 
perfect clearness, and rather of a bluish cast ; 
and even after falling into the Missouri, it 
preserves its color for half a mile. 

From this fountain the river descends with 
increased rapidity for the distance of three 
thousand five hundred and thirty-one feet, dur- 
ing which the estimated descent is five feet ; 
from this, for a distance of two thousand two 



148 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

hundred and twenty-seven feet, the river de- 
scends fourteen feet seven inches, including a 
perpendicular fall of six feet seven inches. 

The river has now become pressed into a 
space of one thousand four hundred and nine- 
teen feet, and here forms a grand cataract, by 
falling over a plain rock, the whole distance 
across the river, to the depth of forty-seven 
feet eight inches : after recovering itself, the 
Missouri then proceeds with an estimated 
descent of three feet, till at the distance of 
sixteen hundred and eighty-three feet it again 
is precipitated down the crooked falls of nine- 
teen feet perpendicular ; below this, at the 
mouth of a deep ravine, is a fall of five feet, 
after which, for the distance of sixteen thou-, 
sand and five feet f (upwards of three miles,) 
the descent is much more gradual, not being 
more than ten feet, and then succeeds a hand- 
some level plain for the space of two thousand 
nine hundred and thirty-seven feet, (more than 
half a mile,) with a computed descent of three 
feet, making a bend towards the north. 

Thence it descends, during seven thousand 
nine hundred and twenty feet, about eighteen 
feet and a half, when it makes a perpendicular 
fall of two feet, which is fourteen hundred and 
eighty-five feet beyond the great cataract, in 
approaching which it descends thirteen feet, 
within a distance of about six hundred feet, 
and gathering strength from its confined chan- 
nel, which is only eight hundred and forty feet 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 149 

wide, rushes over the fall to the depth of eighty- 
seven feet and three quarters of an inch. 

After raging among the rocks and losing it- 
self in foam, it is compressed immediately into 
a bed of two hundred and seventy-nine feet in 
width ; it continues for five thousand six hun- 
dred and ten feet to the entrance of a run or 
deep ravine, where there is a fall of three feet, 
which joined to the decline of the river during 
that course, makes the descent six feet. 

As it goes on, the descent within the next 
three thousand nine hundred and sixty feet, is 
only four feet ; from this, passing a run or deep 
ravine, the descent for one thousand six hun- 
dred feet is thirteen feet ; within three thou- 
sand nine hundred and sixty feet, is a second 
descent of eighteen feet ; thence two thousand 
six hundred and forty feet farther, is a descent 
of six feet ; after which, to the mouth of Por- 
tage creek, a distance of four thousand six 
hundred and twenty feet, the descent is ten 
feet. From this survey and estimate, it results, 
that the river experiences a descent of three 
hundred and fifty-two feet in the course of two 
or three quarter miles, from the commence- 
ment of the rapids to the mouth of Portage 
creek, exclusive of almost impassable rapids 
which extend for a mile below its entrance. 

13* 



150 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN*. 



CATARACT OF THE NILE 

This celebrated river, through its long and 
fertile range of about two thousand British 
miles, in winding through abrupt and precip- 
itous countries, exhibits very considerable cat- 
aracts, ten or twelve of which, having a de- 
scent of more than twenty feet, occur before 
it reaches the level of Egypt. The one which, 
by way of eminence, is called the Cataract of 
the Nile, was visited by Mr. Bruce, from whose 
relation the following particulars are extracted. 

At the distance of half a mile beneath the 
cataract, the river is confined between two 
rocks, over which a strong bridge of a single 
arch has been thrown, and runs into a deep 
trough with great roaring and an impetuous 
velocity. On ascending, the cataract presents 
itself amid groves of beautiful trees, and ex- 
hibits a most magnificent and stupendous 
sight, such, Mr. Bruce observes, as ages, add- 
ed to the greatest length of human life, could 
not efface or eradicate from his memory. 
It struck him with a kind of stupor, and total 
oblivion of where he was, as well as of every 
sublunary concern. 

At the time of his visit, the river had been 
considerably increased by rains, and fell in 
one sheet of water, above half an English 
mile in breadth and to the depth of at least 
forty feet, with a force and noise which were 
truly terrific, and which for a time stunned 



WONDESS OP THE OCEAN. 151 

him and made him giddy. A thick fume or 
haze covered the fall in every part, and hung 
over the course of the stream both above and 
below, marking its track although the waters 
were not seen. The river, although much 
swollen, preserved its natural clearness, and 
fell, partly into a deep pool or basin in the 
solid rock, and partly into twenty different ed- 
dies, to the very foot of the precipice. In fall- 
ing, a portion of the stream appeared to run 
back with great fury on the rock, as well as 
forward in the line of its course, raising waves 
or violent ebullitions which chafed against 
each other. 



TALLULAH FALLS. 

The rapids of Tallulah are in Georgia, ten 
miles above the union of the Tallulah and 
Chatooga rivers, which form the Tugaloo, five 
miles from South Carolina, and about twenty 
miles from the line of North Carolina. The 
river, which is forty yards wide above the ra- 
pids, is forced, for a mile and a fourth, through 
a range of mountains into a channel scarcely 
twenty feet broad. 

The mountain receives the water into a 
broad basin, surrounded by solid rock one 
hundred feet in height. Here the stream 
pauses in anticipation of the awful gulf; then 
rushes down a cataract forty feet ; then, hur- 



152 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

vying through a narrow winding passage, dash- 
ing from side to side against the precipice and 
repeatedly turning at right angles, is precipi- 
tated one hundred feet — and in a moment af- 
ter fifty feet more, — and then making many 
short turns, it rushes down three or four falls 
of twenty and ten feet. The sum of the fall, 
in the distance of a mile, is estimated at three 
hundred and fifty feet. 

The rapids, however splendid, apart from 
the sublimity with which they are surrounded, 
are only an appendage to the stupendous banks 
of solid rock, descending almost perpendicu- 
larly to the water on both sides of the river, 
and varying in the distance of a mile from 
seven hundred to one thousand feet in height, 
so that the stream literally passes that distance 
through the mountain, or rather through the 
high lands that connect two mountains. 

The visitor approaches from the west, finds 
an easy descent for the last mile, and drives 
his carriage to the very edge of the gulf. No 
unusual appearances of pointed rocks or broken 
lands admonish him that the rapids are near, 
till suddenly he sees the opening abyss. He 
advances cautiously from tree to tree till he 
looks down upon the water. 

Instantly his mind surrenders itself to the 
overwhelming sensation of awe and amaze- 
ment. He neither speaks nor smiles, and even 
a jest or smile from a friend is painful to the 
feelings ; which, particularly with the ladies, 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN". 153 

(as at the Niagara Falls.) are often relieved 
by weeping. Some of our company hurrying 
down to the brink, without giving the mind 
time to collect itself, experienced dizziness and 
faintness, and were compelled to crawl back. 

Here are no artificial embellishments. The 
scenery wears the artless robe of nature's 
wildness. The romantic variety, magnificence, 
and sublimity of nature are untouched by hu- 
man hands. The rapids are in the bosom of 
a forest, in which are seen burrows of foxes 
and dens of rattlesnakes, and in which are 
heard the howling of wolves and the scream- 
ing of eagles : there the wild deer bound 
gracefully through the small bushes, and pass 
the trees rifted by lightning. 

In front of the spectator, the perpendicular 
face of the rock on the opposite shore, present- 
ing an endless variety of figures and colors — 
brown, white, azure, and purple — over-hang- 
ing, receding, angular, and square surfaces — 
figures in bass-relief ornamented w r ith shrub- 
bery — small rivulets falling in graceful cas- 
cades down the precipice — the opening abyss, 
lined with massive rock — the foaming, roaring 
water, at the bottom, encircled by rainbows — 
all seen at one view, produce sensations un- 
utterable. 

The feeling once enjoyed, you desire to re- 
call it ; but it can be recalled only by placing 
yourself again upon the spot. IVor does the 
scenery lose its power by long and minute ex- 



154 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

amination. I lingered about the rapids three 
days, and the effect was rather heightened by- 
new discoveries than weakened by familiarity. 

The most magnificent general view is from 
a part of the precipice which projects over the 
abyss twenty feet, and which is gained by a 
descent of fifteen feet. This is half way be- 
tween the commencement and termination of 
the rapids, near the highest part of the moun- 
tain through which they pass, and not less 
than one thousand feet above the water ; and 
it affords the best view of the second and third 
falls, one of which is almost under the projec- 
tion. 

Our company had just gained this site, suffi- 
ciently agitated with our situation, when in- 
stantly a peal of thunder burst over us and the 
rain descended upon us. The young ladies 
took shelter under a projecting bank, from 
which one step might have precipitated them 
one thousand feet into the foaming river ; the 
rest of the party crowded under a single um- 
brella upon the point of the overhanging rock. 

The rock house, formerly the entrance of 
the Indian's paradise, but now the eagle's hab- 
itation, was before us ; the earth, in front and 
on either hand, opened wide and deep ? over us 
roared the thunder ; under us, at about the same 
distance, were seen and heard the pouring and 
dashing of the cataracts ; " heaven's red ar- 
tillery" played around, and the wind swept by 
with great violence. 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 155 

At this moment, a large pine near us was 
rifted by the lightning and its trunk entirely 
splintered to the ground. Echo answered echo 
from side to side, rumbling long and loud 
through the caverns of the broken mountain. 
We all trembled, and looked at each other in 
silence. The ladies sustained the shock with 
unexpected equanimity, and kept their places. 
In half an hour the cloud passed over — the 
wind slept — the sun, casting its brilliant rain- 
bows round the falls, spread over the wilder- 
ness a mild and enchanting serenity, and we 
pursued our discoveries with augmented in- 
terest. 



CATARACT OF THE MENDER. 

The cataract which constitutes the source 
of this river, the Scamander of the ancients, 
is thus beautifully described by Doctor Clarke. 
" Our ascent, as we drew near to the source 
of the river, became steep and rocky. Lofty 
summits towered above us in the greatest style 
of Alpine grandeur ; the torrent, in its rugged 
bed below, all the while foaming on our left. 
Presently we entered one of the sublimest na- 
tural amphitheatres the eye ever beheld ; and 
here the guides desired us to alight. The 
noise of waters silenced every other sound. 
Huge craggy rocks rose perpendicularly to an 
immense height ; whose sides and fissures, to 



156 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the very clouds concealing their tops, were 
covered with pines. These grew in every 
possible direction, among a variety of ever- 
green shrubs ; and enormous plane-trees wa- 
ved their vast branches above the torrent. 

" As we approached its deep gulf we beheld 
several cascades, all of foam, pouring impet- 
uously from chasms in the naked face of a 
perpendicular rock. It is said the same mag- 
nificent cataract continues all seasons of the 
year, wholly unaffected by the casualties of 
rain or melting snow. Having reached the 
chasms whence the torrent issues, we found, 
in their front a beautiful natural basin, six or 
eight feet in depth, serving as a reservoir for 
the water during the first moments of its emis- 
sion. It was so clear that the minutest object 
might be discerned at the bottom. 

" The copious overflowing of this reservoir 
causes the appearance, to a spectator below, 
of different cascades falling to the depth of 
about forty feet, but there is only one source. 
Behind are the chasms whence the water is- 
sues. We entered one of these and passed 
into a cavern. Here the water appeared, 
rushing with great force beneath the rock to- 
wards the basin on the outside. The whole 
of the rock about the source was covered with 
moss ; close to the basin grew hazel and 
plane-trees, above were oaks and pines, and 
all beyond a naked and fearful precipice." 



WONDERS UF THE OCEAN. 157 



CATARACT IN DALMATIA. 

In Dalmatia, the river Cettina forms a mag- 
nificent cascade, called by the inhabitants 
Velica Gubavisa, to distinguish it from a less 
fall a little below. The waters precipitate 
themselves from a height of above one hundred 
and fifty feet, forming a deep majestic sound, 
which is caused by the echo resounding be- 
tween the steep and naked marble banks. 
Many broken fragments of rocks, which im- 
pede the course of the river after its fall, break 
the waves and render them still more lofty 
and sonorous. By the violence of the reper- 
cussion, their froth flies oil* in small white 
particles, and is raised in successive clouds, 
which are scattered by the agitation of the 
air over the valley. When these clouds as- 
cend directly upward, the inhabitants expect 
the noxious southeast wind called the sirocco. 

The fall of the Staub-Bach, in the valley of 
Lauterbrannen, is estimated at nine hundred 
feet of perpendicular height ; and about a 
league from Schaffhausen, at the village of 
LaufTen, in Switzerland, is a tremendous cat- 
aract of the Rhine, where that river precipi- 
tates itself from a rock said to be seventy feet 
in height, and not less than four hundred and 
fifty feet in breadth. 

In Sweden, near Gottenburgh, the river Go- 
tha rushes down from a prodigiously high pre- 
cipice into a deep pit with a dreadful noise? 
14 



158 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

and with such amazing force, that the trees 
designed for the masts of ships, which are 
floated down the river, are usually turned up- 
side down in their fall and shattered in pieces. 
They frequently sink so far under water, as 
to disappear for a quarter of an hour, half an 
hour, and sometimes for three quarters of an 
hour. The pit into which the torrent precipi- 
tates them is of a depth not to be ascertained, 
having been sounded with a line of several 
hundred fathoms without the bottom being 
found. 



PASSAIC FALLS. 

In addition to the stupendous North Ameri- 
can cataracts already described, may be no- 
ticed the one formed by the river Passaic, 
which discharges itself into the sea at the nor- 
thern extremity of the state of New Jersey. 
About twenty miles from the mouth of this 
river, where it has a breadth of about one 
hundred and twenty feet, and runs with a very 
swift current, it reaches a deep chasm or cleft 
which crosses its channel, and falls about 
seventy feet perpendicular in one entire sheet. 
One end of the cliff is closed up, and the wa- 
ter rushes out of the other with incredible ra- 
pidity, in an acute angle to its former direction, 
and is received into a large basin. It thence 
takes a winding course through the rocks 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 159 

and spreads again into a very considerable 
channel. 

The cleft is from four to twelve feet in 
breadth, and is supposed to have been produced 
by an earthquake. When this cataract was 
visited by a late British traveller, the spray 
formed two beautiful rainbows, primary and 
secondary, which greatly assisted in producing 
as fine a scene as the imagination can con- 
ceive. It was heightened by another fall, 
though of less magnificence, about ninety feet 
above. The falls of St. Anthony, on the river 
Mississippi, descend from a perpendicular 
height of thirty feet, and are nearly eight hun- 
dred feet in width, while the shore on each 
side is a level flat, without any intervening 
rock or precipice. 



MEETING OF THE WATERS. 

The meeting of certain rivers with the ocean 
is thus beautifully described in Make Brun's 
Geography. 

Rivers running into the sea present a great 
variety of interesting phenomena. Many form 
bars of sand, as the Senegal and the Nile ; 
others, like the Danube, rush with such force 
into the sea, that one can, for a certain space, 
distinguish the waters of the river from those 
of the sea. The Mississippi ejects its waters 
with such force, that it retains the form of a 



160 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

strong and rapid river even in the bosom of 
the Atlantic, traverses the American coast for 
upwards of two thousand miles, and first min- 
gles with the ocean near the western shores 
of Scotland. This prodigy is denominated the 
Gulf Stream. 

Rivers, however, sometimes experience the 
superior influence of the sea, which repels the 
waters into their bed. Thus the Seine forms 
at its mouth a " bar of water," and the Ga- 
ronne, unable to discharge with sufficient ra- 
pidity the waters which it accumulates in a 
kind of gulf between Bordeaux and its mouth, 
exhibits this aquatic mountain, stopped by the 
flow of the tide, rolling backward, inundating 
the banks and agitating vessels. 

The most sublime phenomenon of this kind 
is that of the giant of rivers, the Orellana, 
called the river of the Amazons. Twice a day 
it pours its imprisoned waves into the ocean. 
A liquid mount is thus raised to the height of 
one hundred and eighty feet ; it frequently 
meets the flowing tide of the sea, and the 
shock of these two bodies of waters is so dread- 
ful that it makes the neighboring shores trem- 
ble. Fishermen and navigators fly from it in 
the utmost terror. 

After every full moon, when the tides are 
highest, the river seems to redouble its power 
and energy ; its waves and those of the ocean 
rush against each other like the onset of two 
mighty armies. The banks are inundated 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 161 

with their foaming waves : the rocks, drawn 
along like light pebbles, and borne as weapons 
of war almost upon the surface of the adverse 
tides, are compulsory participators in the con- 
flict, by dashing against and fracturing each 
other. Loud noises, like the clamor of warring 
hosts, re-echo from island to island. One 
would suppose the genius of the river and the 
god of the ocean were contending in battle for 
the empire of the waves. The Indians call 
this phenomenon Porororca. 



THE CROCODILE. 

Cuvier, the celebrated naturalist, who re- 
cently died in Paris, says there are three kinds 
of crocodiles. They all, however, have many 
common characteristics. They are very large 
and strong, varying in length from five to thirty 
feet. Their bodies are very rough ; their backs 
are covered with square scales or plates, and 
their sides by small round ones. When seen 
basking in the sun, or floating leisurely down 
a river, they are said to bear a striking resem- 
blance to the rough trunks of trees. Their 
scales are so strong that a musket-ball cannot 
penetrate them. They are all amphibious. 

All of them have long heads; and such is 

their singular structure about the head and 

neck, that it was formerly supposed the animal 

could move its upper jaw, and thus throw its 

14* 



162 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 

head backward upon its neck ; but this opinion 
was erroneous. They have very wide mouths, 
and small tongues ; and, what is very singular, 
the tongue is closely fastened to the bottom 
and sides of the mouth, in such a way that it 
cannot be extended in the least. They have 
twenty-seven teeth above, and fifteen below, 
which are thick at the roots and sharp-pointed 
at the ends, so that, when the mouth is shut, the 
upper teeth, except the four already described, 
go between the lower ones. 

Each of the four paws has five toes ; and 
each of the hinder has four ; and three toes of 
each foot have claws or nails. The eyes are 
very small in proportion to the bulk of the 
body, and are provided with three lids; and 
under the throat are two small pouches, in 
which is found a strong musky substance. 
The color of a full-grown crocodile is blackish- 
brown above, and yellowish underneath. The 
upper parts of the legs and sides are varied 
with deep yellow, tinged with green. The 
animal has no lips, so that its huge mouth, set 
out with long rows of formidable teeth, w T ith 
eyes always glaring, like fire, gives it a ter- 
rible appearance, and convinces the beholder, 
at once, that it must be a powerful and dan- 
gerous animal. 

In most countries, they do not hesitate to 
attack, not only most other animals, but even 
man. They will sometimes attack a boat's 
crew, rearing their heads above w r ater, and 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 163 

snapping their jaws in a most fearful manner ; 
often endeavoring to overturn the boat. They 
will follow vessels at sea for many days, to 
secure every thing of the animal kind that is 
thrown overboard. They decrease in numbers, 
but become more ferocious, as their haunts are 
intruded upon by man ; though the piked-nosed, 
or smaller kind, which are still numerous in 
Florida and Louisiana, are not regarded as 
very dangerous. In South America, since the 
late wars have furnished them with much hu- 
man flesh, they have become much more bold, 
ravenous, and dangerous than formerly. Thus 
does human ferocity aggravate that of the 
brute creation. 

Their usual food is fish, reptiles, and carrion 
flesh which is thrown into the stream. They 
seem to prefer their food in the latter state, 
and, for this purpose, are known sometimes to 
bury their prey in the mud, till putrefaction 
commences. Although very voracious, they 
are able to subsist a long time without food. 
They abound most where fish and other crea- 
tures are in the greatest numbers, and seem 
ordained to keep down that astonishingly rapid 
increase of many animals which would other- 
wise take place. If they hear a dog bark on 
shore, they immediately go in pursuit of him ; 
but they are less successful in pursuing their 
prey on land than in the water, on account of 
the shortness of their legs, the great length of 
their bodies, and the difficulty of turning ; for 



164 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 

a crocodile of eighteen or twenty feet in length 
must describe a large circle on land in order 
to turn round ; but in the water, they turn al- 
most instantly, and with perfect ease. 

The force with which this huge reptile darts 
through the water, resembles the flight of an 
arrow, rather than the movements of an ani- 
mal. The males of this species sometimes, in 
the spring, have terrible battles with each 
other. Their gambols, whether designed as a 
challenge to their fellows, or as mere sport, are 
a curiosity. On these occasions, they are at 
first seen darting along as swift as lightning, 
for a little distance, after which they gradu- 
ally move slower, till suddenly they stop, draw 
in water and air, which makes a rattling or 
gurgling in the throat, for a moment, till they 
fill themselves, when they blow it out of their 
mouth and nostrils with great force and noise, 
not unlike distant thunder ; at the same time 
vibrating their tail swiftly in the air. At other 
times, after thus inflating themselves, they raise" 
their head and tail above the water, and whirl 
round, till they lash the waves into such a 
foam, that they may be said to " boil like a 
pot." 

The females make their nests upon the banks 
of rivers, generally in marshes, and at a short 
distance from the water. They are arranged 
somewhat like an encampment. They are 
obtuse cones, four feet high, and four feet thick 
at the base, built of mud and grass. A floor 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 105 

of such mortar is first spread upon the ground, 
on which are placed a layer of eggs, as large 
as those of a hen. On these is put another 
layer of mortar, half a foot thick ; then another 
layer of eggs, then mortar ; and so on to the 
top. From one to two hundred eggs are found 
in a nest. The females watch the nests, and, 
as soon as they are hatched, the young follow 
the mother about, on land and in water. When 
basking in the sun, on shore, the young are 
heard whining and yelping about the mother, 
like young puppies. 

When first hatched, they are very feeble and 
helpless, and, until old enough to defend them- 
selves, are devoured by birds of prey, turtles, 
and even by the male alligators. The eggs 
are also sought by vultures ; and if the female 
did not deposite an immense number of them, 
these animals would soon become extinct. 

Like snakes, and most other reptiles, they 
have a very small brain, and will live a long 
time after it is destroyed. Mr. Peale one 
morning shot away the whole of the upper 
part of a crocodile's head, and, on passing the 
same way in the evening, the animal had 
crawled off. Following it a considerable way, 
he found it alive, and, mangled as it was, ready 
for battle. 

The ancient Egyptians, who worshipped 
many animals, deified the crocodile among the 
rest. In the temple of Memphis, one of these 
reptiles was reared with great care, being 



1G6 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

abundantly fed, adorned with jewels, and lodged 
in a spacious basin, having offerings and sac- 
rifices made to him. Being thus fed and man- 
aged, the terrible reptile became sufficiently 
mild and tractable to be led about in ceremo- 
nial processions. When he died, his body was 
embalmed, and buried in the royal sepulchre. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE SEAL 

The seal, in some respects, resembles a quad- 
ruped, but in its habits and manner of living, 
bears greater affinity to a fish. The head is 
round, like that of a man ; but the nose is like 
that of an otter ; and the teeth resemble those 
of a dog ; the eyes are large, full, and spark- 
ling ; and instead of external ears, it has two 
holes in the head ; the neck is well proportion- 
ed, and the body is thickest at the part where 
it joins, and from thence decreases down to the 
tail. It is impossible to say positively the size 
of this animal, as the difference between them 
is so very great ; some measure only four feet 
in length, while others are known to exceed 
nine. 

The body is covered with a thick, bristly, 
shining hair, which gives it the appearance of 
being rubbed over with oil. Some are black, 
others spotted ; but yellow is the color which 
chiefly prevails. The feet are placed so close 
to the body that they apparently seem much 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 167 

more like fins, and are covered with a mem- 
brane which conceals their shape ; the hinder 
feet are turned backwards, and are totally use- 
less when the creature is upon land ; notwith- 
standing which, it moves very quickly when- 
ever it perceives that it is pursued. The tongue 
is forked, like that of a serpent ; and the blood 
is able to circulate without passing through 
the lungs, which enables the animal to dive 
under water, and yet in that situation freely 
respire. 

Indeed, the water appears to be the seaFs 
natural station, as it chiefly exists upon what 
that element will produce. This animal is 
found in every climate, but in the northern 
seas it particularly abounds ; and on the rocky 
shores they are seen basking by thousands, 
whenever the weather happens to be fine. 
Though the generality of quadrupeds content- 
edly remain attached to the spot where they 
first drew breath, unless fear or necessity com- 
pels them to roam, the seal appears to delight 
in change ; and, like birds of passage, migrate 
at stated periods of the year. On the northern 
coasts of Greenland, they retire in July, and, 
before the end of September, generally return ; 
and the object of their excursion is supposed 
to be food. 

In the beginning of March, they likewise 
disappear, and return again in about ten weeks, 
accompanied by their young ; and previous to 
their setting out upon this expedition, whole 



168 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

droves of them are seen together, making 
towards the north, and bending their course 
near that part of the sea where their passage 
seems least likely to be impeded by ice. By 
what route, or in what manner they return, 
is a circumstance utterly unknown ; but it is 
observed that they are very fat when they 
leave the coast, and remarkably thin when 
they reappear. 

The females bring forth in winter, and rear 
their young upon some sand bank, or rock, 
where they remain from twelve to fifteen days. 
These little animals, at the time of their birth, 
are white, and their hair has the appearance 
and flexibility of wool ; while they are sucking, 
the female erects herself upon her hinder feet, 
and the young ones cling close to her sides. 
They are remarkable for docility and gentle- 
ness, and at the greatest distance, discover 
their parents' voice. Upon land, the seal is a 
very timid creature ; though they are extremely 
courageous in the sea ; and, in those parts 
where herrings are found in shoals, whole 
herds of these animals always reside. 

The skin of the seal sells for about one dol- 
lar, and is used for shot pouches and covering 
trunks ; but the Greenlanders chiefly pursue 
them for the sake of the oil, which they easily 
extract from the creature's fat. It is supposed 
that the seal goes about eight months with 
young : but its migration prevents it from being 
positively known ; its length of life likewise 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 1G9 

has not been completely ascertained, but it is 
supposed not to exceed fifteen or sixteen 
years. 



A NIGHT AT SEA. 

Nothing can exceed the solemn stillness of 
a night at sea within the tropics, when the 
wind is light, and the water comparatively 
smooth. Few periods and situations, amid the 
diversified circumstances of human life, are 
equally adapted to excite contemplation, or to 
impart more elevated conceptions of the Divine 
Being, and more just impressions of the in- 
significancy and dependence of man. 

In order to avoid the vertical rays of a tropi- 
cal sun, and the painful effects of the reflection 
from the water, many of my voyages among 
the Georgian and Society Islands have been 
made during the night. At these periods, I 
have often been involuntarily brought under 
the influence of a train of thought and feeling 
peculiar to the season and the situation, but 
never more powerfully so than on the present 
occasion. 

The night was moonless, but not dark. The 
stars increased in number and variety as the 
evening advanced, until the whole firmament 
was overspread with luminaries of every mag- 
nitude and brilliancy. The agitation of the 
sea had subsided, and the waters around us 
15 



170 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

appeared to unite with the indistinct though 
visible horizon. In the heavens and the ocean, 
all powers of vision were lost, while the bril- 
liant lights in the one, being reflected from the 
surface of the other, gave a correspondence to 
the appearance of both, and almost forced the 
illusion on the mind, that our little bark was 
suspended in the centre of two united hemi- 
spheres. 

The perfect quietude that surrounded us was 
equally impressive. No objects were visible 
but the lamps of heaven, and the luminous ap- 
pearances of the deep. The silence was bro- 
ken only by the murmurs of the breeze, passing 
through our matting sails, or the dashing of 
the spray from the bows of our boat, excepting 
at times, when we heard, or fancied we heard, 
the blowing of a shoal of porpoises, or the more 
alarming sounds of a spouting whale. 

At a season such as this, when I have re- 
flected on our actual situation, so far removed, 
in the event of any casualty, from human ob- 
servation and assistance, and preserved from 
certain death only by a few feet of thin board 
which my own unskilful hands had nailed to- 
gether, a sense of the wakeful care of the Al- 
mighty has alone afforded composure ; and 
when I have gazed on the magnificent and 
boundless assemblage of suns and worlds, 
whose rays have shed their lustre over the 
scene, and have remembered that they were 
formed, sustained, and controlled, in all their 



W0NDER3 OF THE OCEAN. 171 

complex and mighty movements, by Him on 
whose care I could alone rely, — I have almost 
involuntarily uttered the exclamation of the 
Psalmist, " Lord, what is man, that Thou art 
mindful of him ?" 

The contemplation of the heavenly bodies, 
although they exhibit the wisdom and majesty 
of God, who " bringeth out their host by num- 
ber, and calleth them all by names, by the 
greatness of His might," impressed, at the same 
time, the conviction that 1 was far from home, 
and those scenes which, in memory, were 
associated with a starlight evening in the land 
I had left. 

Many of the stars which I had beheld in 
England, were visible here ; the constellations 
of the zodiac, the splendors of Orion, and the 
mild twinkling of the Pleiades were seen ; but 
the northern pole-star, the steady beacon of 
juvenile astronomical observation, the Great 
Bear, and much that was peculiar to a north- 
ern sky, were wanting. The effect of mental 
associations, connected with the appearance 
of the heavens, is singular and impressive. 

During a voyage which I subsequently made 
to the Sandwich Islands, many a pleasant hour 
was spent in watching the rising of those lu- 
minaries of heaven which we had been ac- 
customed to behold in our native land, but 
which, for many years, had been invisible. 
When the polar star rose above the horizon, 
and Ursa Major, with other familiar constella- 



172 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

tions, appeared, we hailed them as long-absent 
friends ; and could not but feel that we were 
nearer England than when we left Tahiti, sim- 
ply from beholding the stars that had enlivened 
our evening excursions at home. 

But although, in our present voyage, none 
of these appeared, the southern hemisphere 
exhibited much to attract attention. The stars 
in the Fish, the Ship, and the Centaur, the 
nebulcB, or Magellanic clouds, and, above all 
others, Crux, or the " Cross of the South," are 
all peculiar to this part of the heavens. This 
latter constellation is one of the most remark- 
able in the southern hemisphere. The two 
stars forming the longest part, having nearly 
the same right ascension, it appears erect when 
in the zenith, and thus furnishes a nightly in- 
dex to the flight of time, and a memento to the 
most sublime feelings of grateful devotion. 

With my fellow-voyagers I could enter into 
nothing like reciprocally interesting conversa- 
tion on these subjects. Their legends of the 
nature and origin of the stars were absurd and 
fabulous ; and my attempts to explain the 
magnitude, distances, or movements of the 
heavenly bodies, appeared to them unintelligi- 
ble. 

" Their souls proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk or milky way." 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 173 

A FIRE AT SEA. 

Perhaps the most aggravating circumstan- 
ces under which shipwreck can happen, are 
when it is occasioned by fire. It is then that 
death stares the mariner in the face in the 
most hideous form, while his means of coun- 
teracting the danger, or escaping from it, are 
more limited and ineffectual. Not many dis- 
asters of this nature have been so calamitous 
as the burning of a French East Indiaman, 
" The Prince'' She sailed from Port L'Orient, 
in France, on the 19th of February, 1752, on 
a voyage outward bound. Before the awful 
calamity which we are about to relate, the 
ship had suffered much from having been 
driven on a sand bank. 

She had been four months at sea when, early 
one morning in June, she was discovered to 
be on fire. While the captain hastened on 
deck, lieutenant de La Fond ordered some 
sails to be dipped in the sea and the hatches 
to be covered with them, in order to prevent 
the access of air. Every one was employed 
in procuring water; all the buckets were used, 
the pumps plied, and pipes introduced from 
them into the hold ; but the rapid progress of 
the flames baffled every exertion to subdue 
them, and augmented the general consterna- 
tion. 

The boatswain and three others took pos- 
session of the yawl and pushed off; but those 
15* 



174 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

on board still continued their exertions. The 
captain boldly ventured into the hold, to as- 
certain, if possible, the origin of the fire ; but 
was compelled by the intense heat, instantly 
to return, and had not a quantity of water 
been dashed over him, he would have been 
severely scorched. In attempting to get the 
long-boat out, it fell on the guns and could not 
be righted. Consternation now seized on the 
crew; nothing but sighs and groans resounded 
through the vessel ; and the animals on board, 
as if sensible of the impending danger, uttered 
the most dreadful cries. 

The chaplain of the ship, who was now on 
the quarter-deck, cheered the people and ex- 
horted them to renewed exertions ; but 

" With fruitless toil the crew oppose the flame ; 
No art can now the spreading mischief tame ; 
Some smoked and smother'd did expiring lie, 
Burn with the ship and on the waters fry ! 
Some, when the flames could be no more withstood, 
By wild despair directed, 'midst the flood 
Themselves in haste from the tall vessel threw, 
And from the heat, to liquid ruin flew. 
Sad choice of death ! when those who shun the fire, 
Must to as fierce an element retire ! 
Uncommon sufferings did these wretches wait, 
Both burnt and drown'd, they met a double fate !" 

Self-preservation w T as now the only object, 
and each one was occupied in throwing over- 
board whatever promised the least chance of 
escape. Yards, spars, hen-coops, and every 
thing to be met with, was seized in despair 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 175 

and thus employed. Some leaped into the sea 
as the mildest death that awaited them ; others, 
more successful, swam to fragments of the 
wreck ; while some crowded on the ropes and 
yards, hesitating which alternative to choose. 
A father was seen to snatch his son from the 
flames and clasp him to his breast, then plung- 
ing into the waves they perished in each oth- 
er's embrace. 

The floating masts and yards were covered 
with men struggling with the watery element, 
many of whom now perished by balls from the 
ship's guns, which chanced to be loaded and 
were discharged as the fire reached them, thus 
forming a third means of destruction. The 
lieutenant, who had hitherto borne the mis- 
fortune with the greatest fortitude, was now 
pierced with anguish to see that no further 
hope remained of preserving the ship or the 
lives of his fellow sufferers. Stripping off 
his clothes, he designed to slide down a yard, 
one end of which dipped in the water, but it 
was so covered with miserable beings shrink- 
ing from death, that he tumbled over them 
and fell into the sea. 

He had no sooner reached the water than 
he was seized by a drowning soldier. La Fond 
made every exertion to free himself, but in 
vain. Twice they plunged below the surface, 
but still the man held him until the agonies 
of death were passed, and he became loosened 
from his grasp. After clearing his way through 



176 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the floating bodies which covered the surface 
of the ocean, La Fond seized on a yard, and 
afterwards gained a sprit-sail covered with 
people, but on which he was, nevertheless, 
permitted to take a place. He next got on 
the mainmast, which having been consumed 
below, fell overboard, and after killing some in 
its fall, afforded a temporary succor to others. 

Eighty persons were now on the mainmast, 
including the chaplain, who by his discourse 
and example taught the duty of resignation. 
Lieutenant La Fond, seeing the worthy man 
quit his hold and drop into the sea, lifted him 
up. " Let me go," said he, " I am already 
half drowned, and it is only protracting my 
sufferings." " No, my friend," replied the lieu- 
tenant, " when my strength is exhausted, but 
not till then, we will perish together." 

The flames still continued raging in the ves- 
sel, and the fire at last reached the magazine, 
when the most thundering explosion took 
place ; and nothing could be seen but pieces 
of flaming timber, projected aloft in the air, 
threatening to crush to atoms in their fall, 
numbers of miserable beings already struggling 
in the agonies of death. Lieutenant La Fond, 
with the pilot and master, now escaped to the 
yawl, and as night approached, they fortu- 
nately discovered a cask of brandy, about fif- 
teen pounds of pork, a piece of scarlet cloth, 
about twenty yards of linen, a dozen of pipe 
staves, and a small piece of cordage. The 






WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 177 

scarlet cloth was fitted for a sail, an oar was 
erected for a mast, and a plank for a rudder. 

This equipment was made in the darkness 
of the night ; but a greater difficulty yet re- 
mained ; for as they had no charts or instru- 
ments of any kind, and being nearly two hun- 
dred leagues from land, they were utterly at 
a loss to know which way to steer. Both days 
and nights passed in miserable succession and 
no land was to be seen ; the party all the 
while exposed to the scorching heat of the 
sun by day and the intense cold by night, suf- 
fering too from the extremities of hunger and 
of thirst. 

When every thing seemed to predict a speed}' 
termination to the sufferings of this unfortu- 
nate crew, on the third of July they discovered 
the distant land. It would be difficult to de- 
scribe the change which the prospect of deliv- 
erance created. Their strength was renovated, 
and they were roused to precautions against 
being drifted away by the current. They 
reached the coast of Brazil and entered Tres- 
son Bay. As soon as they reached the shore, 
they prostrated themselves on the ground, and 
in transports of joy rolled on the sand. 

They exhibited a most frightful appearance. 
They were nearly naked, and, having been so 
long exposed to the heat and cold, and being 
almost starved, they were shockingly disfigur- 
ed. Scarcely any thing human characterized 
any of them. While they were deliberating 



178 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

what course to follow, about fifty Portuguese 
of the settlement advanced, and, seeing their 
wretched condition, pitied their misfortunes 
and conducted them to their dwellings, where 
they were hospitably entertained. 

The chief man of the place soon came to 
see them and conducted them to his house, 
where he charitably supplied them with cloth- 
ing and a plenteous meal. Though sleep was 
almost as necessary as food, yet these misera- 
ble men would not retire to rest until they had 
returned thanks for their miraculous deliver- 
ance in the church, which was half a league 
distant. After staying here a short time, they 
were conducted to Paraibo, and thence to Per- 
nambuco, where they obtained a passage to 
Europe, and arrived at Lisbon on the 17th of 
December. Nearly three hundred persons 
perished in this dreadful catastrophe. 



HOT SPRINGS OF ICELAND. 

At about four in the afternoon, we arrived 
at the hot springs, called the Geysers. At the 
distance of several miles, on turning round the 
foot of a high mountain on our left, we could 
descry, from the clouds of vapor that were 
rising and convolving in the atmosphere, the 
spot where one of the most magnificent and 
unparalleled scenes in nature is displayed ; — 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 179 

where, bursting the parted ground, Great 
Geyser, 

" • hot, through scorching cliffs, is seen to rise, 

With exhalations steaming to the skies !" 

Electrified, as it were, by the sight, and feel- 
ing impatient to have our curiosity fully grat- 
ified, Mr. Hodgson and I rode on before the 
cavalcade ; and, just as we got clear of the 
southeast corner of the low hill, at the side of 
which the springs are situated, we were sa- 
luted by an eruption which lasted several min- 
utes, and during which the water appeared 
to be carried to a great height in the air. 
Riding on, between the springs and the hill, 
we fell in with a small green spot, where we 
left our horses, and proceeded, as if by an ir- 
resistible impulse, to the gently-sloping ground, 
from the surface of which numerous columns 
of steam were making their escape. 

Though surrounded by a great multiplicity 
of boiling springs and steaming apertures, the 
magnitude and grandeur of which far exceed- 
ed any thing we had ever seen before, we felt 
at no loss in determining on which of them to 
feast our wondering eyes, and bestow the pri- 
mary moments of astonished contemplation. 
Near the northern extremity of the tract rose 
a large circular mound, formed by the deposi- 
tions of the fountain, justly distinguished by 
the appellation of the Great Geyser, from the 
middle of which a great degree of evaporation 
was visible. 



180 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

Ascending the rampart, we had the spacious 
basin at our feet, more than half filled with 
the most beautiful hot crystalline water, which 
was but just moved by a gentle ebullition, oc- 
casioned by the escape of steam from a cylin- 
drical pipe or funnel in the centre. This pipe 
I ascertained by admeasurement to be seventy- 
eight feet of perpendicular depth : its diameter 
is, in general, from eight to ten feet ; but near 
the mouth it gradually widens, and opens al- 
most imperceptibly into the basin, the inside 
of which exhibits a whitish surface, consisting 
of a silicious incrustation, which has been 
rendered almost perfectly smooth by the in- 
cessant action of the boiling water. 

The diameter of the basin is fifty-six feet in 
one direction, and forty-six in another ; and 
when full it measures about four feet in depth, 
from the surface of the water to the com- 
mencement of the pipe. The borders of the 
basin which form the highest part of the mound 
are very irregular, owing to the various ac- 
cretions of the deposited substances ; and at 
two places are small channels, equally polished 
with the interior of the basin, through which 
the water makes its escape when it has been 
filled to the margin. The declivity of the 
mound is rapid at first, especially on the north- 
west side, but instantly begins to slope more 
gradually ; and the depositions are spread all 
around to different distances, the least of which 
is near a hundred feet. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 181 

The whole of this surface, the two small 
channels excepted, displays a beautiful silicious 
efflorescence, rising in small granular clusters, 
which bear the most striking resemblance to the 
heads of cauliflowers, and while wet are of so 
extremely delicate a contexture, that it is hardly 
possible to remove them in a perfect state. 
They are of a brownish color, but in some 
places approaching to a yellow. On leaving 
the mound, the hot water passes through a 
turfy kind of soil, and by acting on the peat, 
mosses, and grass, converts them entirely into 
stone, and furnishes the curious traveller with 
some of the finest specimens of petrifaction. 

Having stood some time in silent admiration 
of the magnificent spectacle which this match- 
less fountain, even in a state of inactivity, 
presents to the view, as there were no indica- 
tions of an immediate eruption, we returned 
to the spot where we had left our horses; and, 
as it formed a small eminence at the base of 
the hill, and commanded a view of the whole 
tract, we fixed on it as the site of our tents. 

About thirty-eight minutes past five, we 
were apprized, by low reports and a slight 
concussion of the ground, that an eruption was 
about to take place ; but only a few small jets 
were thrown up, and the water in the basin 
did not rise above the surface of the outlets. 
Not being willing to miss the very first symp- 
toms of the phenomenon, we kept walking 
about in the vicinity of the spring, now sur- 
16 



182 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

veying some of the other cavities, and now 
collecting elegant specimens of petrified wood, 
leaves, &c, on the rising ground between the 
Geyser and the base of the hill. 

At fifteen minutes past eight, we counted 
five or six reports, that shook the mound on 
which we stood, but no remarkable jet follow- 
ed : the water only boiled with great violence, 
and by its heavings caused a number of small 
waves to flow towards the margin of the basin, 
which at the same time received an addition 
to its contents. Twenty-five minutes past nine, 
as I returned from the neighboring hill, I heard 
reports, which were both louder and more nu- 
merous than any of the preceding, and exactly 
resembled the distant discharge of a park of 
artillery. 

Concluding, from these circumstances, that 
the long-expected wonders were about to com- 
mence, I ran to the mound, which shook vio- 
lently under my feet ; and I had scarcely time 
to look into the basin, when the fountain ex- 
ploded, and instantly compelled me to retire 
to a respectful distance on the windward side. 

The water rushed up out of the pipe with 
amazing velocity, and was projected by irreg- 
ular jets into the atmosphere, surrounded by 
immense volumes of steam, which in a great 
measure hid the column from the view. The 
first four or five jets were inconsiderable, not 
exceeding fifteen or twenty feet in height : 
these were followed by one about fifty i'eet 7 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 183 

which was succeeded by two or three consid- 
erably lower ; after which came the last, ex- 
ceeding all the rest in splendor, which rose at 
least to the height of seventy feet. 

The large stones, which we had previously 
thrown into the pipe, were ejaculated to a 
great height, especially one, which was thrown 
much higher than the water. On the propul- 
sion of the jets, they lifted up the water in the 
basin nearest the orifice of the pipe to the 
height of a foot, or a foot and a half ; and, on 
the falling of the column, it not only caused 
the basin to overflow at the usual channels, 
but forced the water over the highest part of 
the brim, behind which I was standing. 

The great body of the column (at least ten 
feet in diameter) rose perpendicularly, but was 
divided into a number of the most superb cur- 
vated ramifications ; and several smaller sprout- 
ings were severed from it, and projected in 
oblique directions, to the no small danger of 
the spectator, who is apt to get scalded, ere 
he is aware, by the falling jet. 

On the cessation of the eruption, the w r ater 
instantly sunk into the pipe, but rose again 
immediately, to about half a foot above the 
orifice, where it remained stationary. All be- 
ing again in a state of tranquillity, and the 
clouds of steam having left the basin, I entered 
it, and proceeded within reach of the water, 
which I found to be 183° of Fahrenheit, a tem- 
perature of more than twenty degrees less 



184 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

than at any period while the basin was filling, 
and occasioned, I suppose, by the cooling of 
the water daring its projection into the air. 

The whole scene was indescribably astonish- 
ing ; but what interested us most, was the cir- 
cumstance that the strongest jet came last, as 
if the Geyser had summoned all her powers, 
in order to show us the greatness of her ener- 
gy, and make a grand finish before retiring 
into the subterraneous chambers in which she 
is concealed from mortal view. Our curiosity 
had been gratified, but it was far from being 
satisfied. We now wished to have it in our 
power to inspect the mechanism of this mighty 
engine, and obtain a view of the springs by 
which it is put in motion : but the wish was 
vain ; for they lie in " a tract which no fowl 
knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not 
seen ;" which man, with all his boasted pow- 
ers, cannot and dare not approach. 

On the morning of the 20th, I was awaken- 
ed by Captain Von Scheel, at twenty-three 
minutes past five o'clock, to contemplate an 
eruption of the spring, which Sir John Stanley 
denominates the New Geyser, situated at the 
distance of a hundred and forty yards to the 
south of the principal fountain. It is scarcely 
possible, however, to give any idea of the bril- 
liancy and grandeur of the scene which caught 
my eye, on drawing aside the curtain of my 
tent. 

From an orifice, nine feet in diameter, which 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 185 

lay directly before me, at the distance of about 
a hundred yards, a column of water, accom- 
panied with prodigious volumes of steam, was 
erupted, with inconceivable force and a tre- 
mendously roaring noise, to varied heights of 
from fifty to eighty feet, and threatened to 
darken the horizon, though brightly illumined 
by the morning sun. During the first quarter 
of an hour, I found it impossible to move from 
my knees, on which I had raised myself, but 
poured out my soul in solemn adoration of the 
almighty Author of Nature, to whose control 
all her secret movements and terrifying opera- 
tions are subject ; " who looketh on the earth, 
and it trembleth ; who toucheth the hills, and 
they smoke." 

At length I repaired to the fountain, where 
we all met and communicated to each other 
our mutual and enraptured feelings of wonder 
and admiration. The jets of water now sub- 
sided ; but their place was occupied by the 
spray and steam, which, having free room to 
play, rushed, with a deafening roar, to a height 
little inferior to that of the water. On throw- 
ing the largest stones we could find into the 
pipe, they were instantly propelled to an amaz- 
ing height ; and some of them, that were cast 
up more perpendicularly than the others, re- 
mained, for the space of four or five minutes, 
within the influence of the steam, being suc- 
cessively ejected and falling again in a very 
amusing manner. 

16* 



186 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

r A gentle northern breeze carried part of the 
spray at the top of the pillar to the one side, 
when it fell like a drizzling rain, and was so 
cold that we could stand below it, and receive 
it on our hands or face without the least in- 
convenience. While I kept my station on the 
same side with the sun, a most brilliant circu- 
lar bow, of a large size, appeared on the op- 
posite side of the fountain ; and on changing 
sides, having the fountain between me and the 
sun, I discovered another, if possible, still more 
beautiful, but so small as only to encircle my 
head. Their hues entirely resembled those of 
the common rainbow. 

After continuing to roar about half an hour 
longer, the column of spray visibly diminished, 
and sunk gradually, till twenty-six minutes 
past six, when it fell to the same state in which 
we had observed it the preceding day, the wa- 
ter boiling at the depth of about twenty feet 
below the orifice of the shaft. 



LAKE BAIKAL. 

This lake is situated in the government of 
Irkutsk in Siberia, and, next to the Caspian 
Sea, is the largest expanse of water within the 
limits of the Russian empire. 

Nowhere, perhaps, could a person who 
should traverse the globe meet with an object 
more truly interesting than the Baikal, wheth- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 187 

er we consider the rude sublimity of its scenery, 
or the singular phenomena which both the 
lake itself and the surrounding country pre- 
sent to the observation of the naturalist. 
Those who have visited this wonderful place, 
seem at a loss for language adequate to the 
feelings which it excites when first beheld. 
After travelling through a vast extent of coun- 
try, diversified by neither lake nor sea, the 
traveller at length reaches a chain of rugged 
mountains, which, forming an immense amphi- 
theatre, enclose a lake that stretches far be- 
yond the reach of sight, and, by the violent 
agitation and dreadful roaring of its billows, 
sometimes assumes all the magnificence of a 
mighty ocean, while at other times the clear- 
ness of its unruffled bosom emulates the lustre 
of the finest mirror. 

The traces of those tremendous concussions 
by which our world has once been agitated, 
are here extremely discernible. The lake itself 
can only be regarded as an enormous gulf, 
formed by the rending of the mountains, and 
intended by nature as a reservoir for her im- 
mense stores of water ; while its rocky shores 
bear in almost every spot the visible marks of 
some terrible revolution, of which they indi- 
cate, at the same time, the remote antiquity. 
Its channel consists of the broken fragments 
of hills, the largest of which still rise above the 
surface in the form of islands. Its coast is one 
heap of broken rocks piled above each other 



188 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

to the height of forty fathoms. Cliffs, whose 
bases are sank in unfathomable pits, lift their 
shattered summits to the clouds ; and on the 
pinnacles of the loftiest mountains are found 
enormous stones in whimsical shapes, which 
could only be projected thither by some violent 
convulsion of the earth. 

Nature seems to have exhausted herself by 
one great effort in forming the Baikal ; for, 
though earthquakes are still frequent in the 
surrounding regions, they are in general so 
slight, that their shock is not felt at any con- 
siderable distance. The most remarkable ef- 
fect of these earthquakes is visible in the lake 
itself, which, even in the serenest weather, and 
while its surface is smooth as glass, sometimes 
undergoes the most violent internal agitations. 
At times, too, in a particular part of the lake, 
a single wave will suddenly rise, which is suc- 
ceeded by several others in the same spot. 
Most of the phenomena, indeed, observable in 
the Baikal, seem to be peculiar and anomalous. 
The state of its surface is almost entirely in- 
dependent of the violent storms to which it is 
subject. Even in a very moderate breeze it 
often rages with alarming fury, while the 
strongest gales scarcely produce any percepti- 
ble increase of agitation. 

The animal productions of the Baikal are 
more curious and unaccountable than the won- 
ders of its coasts. Of these, the most remark- 
able is a fish entirely peculiar to this lake, 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 189 

called by the Russians in that neighborhood, 
Solomianka, and known to naturalists by the 
name of Callyonymus Baikalensis. It exactly 
resembles a clue of blubber, and when exposed 
on a gridiron to the most gentle heat, melts so 
completely away, that nothing remains of it 
but a slender bone. 

It is impossible to catch these fish in nets, 
nor indeed are they ever seen alive. They 
seem to confine themselves to the deep gulfs 
in the centre of the lake, and are generally 
thrown up to the surface in summer, during 
the violent hurricanes which burst from the 
mountains. When the lake has been strongly 
agitated, they are forced up in such quantities 
as to form a kind of parapet upon the shore. 
They are so rank and oily, that neither sea- 
fowl nor ravens will touch their carcass, and 
after remaining near two hours on shore, are 
dissolved by a slight pressure in the hand. 
The oil made of their blubber is sold to the 
Chinese, who value it highly. 

Seals, likewise, abound in the Baikal, — a 
very remarkable phenomenon, as these ani- 
mals are never seen elsewhere at any distance 
from the ocean, nor do they frequent rivers or 
lakes of fresh water. It appears probable, 
therefore, that they have been introduced into 
this inland sea by some extraordinary revolu- 
tion, which has produced a considerable change 
in the level of the globe. Their skin is of a 
silver gray, and their number is so great that 



190 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

no fewer than two thousand are taken annu- 
ally. The hunting of these animals com- 
mences in April. They assemble in great 
flocks, where the rapid currents, or warm 
springs, make chasms in the ice, and frequently 
come out of the water to bask and sleep in the 
sunshine. 

The hunters, who are perfectly acquainted 
with their haunts, place themselves in small 
sledges, which they conceal with a screen of 
white linen. As this screen perfectly resem- 
bles the ice, it can be moved towards the seals 
without alarming them ; and the hunters, who 
are provided with muskets, can thus approach 
so near as to fire upon them without the pos- 
sibility of missing their aim. Another mode 
of catching these animals was employed when 
that country was visited by Mr. Bell of Anter- 
mony. Holes were cut in the ice at certain 
distances, and nets were extended from one 
hole to another by means of long poles. The 
seals, unable to remain longer under the ice, 
came to these apertures for air, and thus en- 
tangling themselves in the nets, became an 
easy prey. 



WIG AN WELL. 



About a mile from Wigan, in Lancashire, 
England, is a spring, the water of which burns 
like oil. On applying a lighted candle to the 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 191 

surface, a large flame is suddenly produced, 
and burns vigorously. A dishful of water 
having been taken up at the part whence the 
flame issues, and a lighted candle held to it, 
the flame goes out ; notwithstanding which, 
the water in this part boils and rises up like 
water in a pot on the fire, but does not feel 
warm on introducing the hand. 

What is still more extraordinary, on making 
a dam, and preventing the flowing of fresh 
water to the ignited part, that which was al- 
ready there having been drained away, a burn- 
ing candle being applied to the surface of the 
dry earth, at the same point where the water 
before burned, the fumes take fire, and burn 
with a resplendent light, the cone of the flame 
ascending a foot and a half from the surface 
of the earth. It is not discolored, like that of 
sulphurous bodies, neither has it any manifest 
smell, nor do the fumes, in their ascent, betray 
any sensible heat. 

The latter unquestionably consists of in- 
flammable air, or hydrogen gas ; and it ought 
to be observed that the whole of the country 
about Wigan for the compass of several miles, 
is underlaid with coal. This phenomenon may 
therefore be referred to the same cause which 
occasioned the dreadful explosion of Felling 
Colliery ; but in the present case, this destruc- 
tive gas, instead of being pent up in the bow- 
els of the earth, accompanies the water in its 
passage to the surface. 



192 "WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 



PITCH LAKE OF TRINIDAD. 

Near Point La Braye, Tar Point, tne name 
assigned to it on account of its characteristic 
feature, in the Island of Trinidad, is a lake 
which at the first view appears to be an ex- 
panse of still water, but which, on a nearer 
approach, is found to be an extensive plain of 
mineral pitch, with frequent crevices and 
chasms filled with water. On its being visited 
in the autumnal season, the singularity of the 
scene was so great, that it required some time 
for the spectators to recover themselves from 
their surprise, so as to examine it minutely. 

The surface of the lake was of an ash color, 
and not polished or smooth, so as to be slip- 
pery, but of such a consistence as to bear any 
weight. It was not adhesive, although it re- 
ceived in part the impression of the foot ; and 
could be trodden without any tremulous mo- 
tion, several head of cattle browsing on it in 
perfect security. In the summer season, how- 
ever, the surface is much more yielding, and 
in a state approaching to fluidity, as is evi- 
denced by pieces of wood and other substances, 
recently thrown in, having been found envel- 
oped in it. Even large branches of trees, which 
were a foot above the level, had, in some way, 
become enveloped in the bituminous matter. 

The interstices, or chasms, are very numer- 
ous, ramifying and joining in every direction : 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 193 

and being filled with water in the wet season, 
present the only obstacle to walking over the 
surface. These cavities are in general deep 
in proportion to their width, and many of them 
unfathomable : the w T ater they contain is un- 
contaminated by the pitch, and is the abode 
of a variety of fishes. The arrangement of the 
chasms is very singular, the sides invariably 
shelving from the surface, so as nearly to meet 
at the bottom, and then bulging out towards 
each other with a- considerable degree of con- 
vexity. Several of them have been known to 
close up entirely, without leaving any mark or 
seam. 

The pitch lake of Trinidad contains many 
islets covered with grass and shrubs, which are 
the haunts of birds of the most exquisite plu- 
mage. Its precise extent cannot, anymore than 
its depth, be readily ascertained, the line be- 
tween it and the neighboring soil not being 
well defined ; but its main body may be esti- 
mated at three miles in circumference. It is 
bounded on the north and west sides by the 
sea, on the south by a rocky eminence, and on 
the east by the usual argillaceous soil of the 
country. 



PETRIFYING W T ATERS 

Alonso Barba gives an account of some petri- 
fying waters of Peru, which greatly exceed all 
17 



194 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

those in Europe in the quantity of stony mat- 
ter they contain. He tells us that they soon 
choke up their own passage by the stony mat- 
ter they deposite there ; and that all the cattle 
that drink of them die. He adds another story, 
which he probably took a little too hastily upon 
credit, which is, that they have moulds of the 
shape of our brick, which they fill with this 
water, and that on being exposed to the sun a 
few days, the water is wholly converted into 
a stone of the same shape ; and that they 
build their houses and other buildings with 
these stones. 

The river of Ayr, in Ayrshire, has been long 
said to possess a strong petrifying power ; and 
the water of Ayr stones, which are nothing but 
wood petrified in that river, are universally 
known, as substances for making hones for 
razors. There are also several springs of this 
kind in Roxburghshire. " One is found," says 
the Rev. J. Arkle, " on the Tweed, exceed- 
ingly powerful, and containing a great quantity 
of water, where large masses of petrified mat- 
ter appear on every side converted into solid 
stone." 

The progress of the petrifaction is distinct 
and beautiful. The fog, which grows on the 
edge of the spring, and is sprinkled with wa- 
ter, is about eight inches high ; the lower part 
is converted into solid stone ; the middle ap- 
pears as if half frozen, and the top is green 
and flourishing. The petrified matter, when 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 195 

burnt, is resolved into very fine lime. The 
spring itself, when led over the fields in little 
rills, fertilizes them exceedingly. 



RECIPROCATING FOUNTAINS. 

Reciprocating fountains may be cited among 
the most curious phenomena of nature. An 
irregularity of flow is not uncommon in boiling 
springs ; but there are other springs which 
evince a periodical influx and reflux, almost as 
regular as the tides of the ocean. These 
changes, it will be seen, frequently occur several 
times in a day, or even in an hour. They are 
ascribed to various causes, either subterrane- 
ous or superficial, but in general, springs and 
lakes of this description have been ascertained 
to communicate with others beneath, through 
pores or apertures of various diameters, which 
serve equally to carry off the waters, and to 
supply them afresh. In such cases, the flux 
and reflux of the upper head of water must 
necessarily depend on the state of that be- 
neath ; and the causes which alternately aug- 
ment and diminish the latter, must produce a 
similar effect on the former. 

Paderborn spring, in Westphalia, disappears 
twice in twenty- four hours, returning constant- 
ly, after a lapse of six hours, with a great noise, 
and so forcibly as to drive three mills at a short 



190 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

distance from its source. The inhabitants call 
it the bolderborn, that is, the boisterous spring. 

Lay-well spring, near Torbay, is about six 
feet in length, five in breadth, and nearly six 
inches deep. The flux and reflux, which are 
very visible, are performed in about two min- 
utes ; when the spring remains at its lowest 
ebb for the space of about three minutes. In 
this way it ebbs and flows twenty times with- 
in the hour. As soon as the water begins to 
rise, many bubbles ascend from the bottom ; 
but on its falling, the bubbling instantly ceases. 

Gigglesvrick spring, in the West Riding of 
Yorkshire, lies at the foot of a hill of limestone 
named Giggleswick Scar. Its reciprocations 
are irregular, both with respect to duration 
and magnitude, the interval of time between 
any two succeeding flows being sometimes 
greater, and at other times less, insomuch that 
a just standard of comparison cannot be formed. 
The rise of the water, in the stone trough, or 
cistern, which receives it, during the time of 
the well's flowing, is equally uncertain, vary- 
ing from one inch to nine or ten inches, in the 
course of a few reciprocations. This spring, 
like the preceding one, discharges bubbles of 
air at the time of its flowing. 

Near the Lake of Bourget, in Savoy, is a re- 
ciprocating spring which rises and falls with a 
great noise, but not at stated and regular times. 
After Easter, its ebbings and flowings are fre- 
quently perceived six times in an hour ; but in 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 197 

dry seasons not more than once or twice. It 
issues from a rock, and is called la Fontaine de 
Merueille, the marvellous fountation. 



BROSELEY SPRIXG. 

This celebrated boiling spring, or well, at 
Broseley, in Shropshire, was discovered in the 
month of June, 1711. It was first announced 
by a terrible noise in the night, there having 
been a remarkable thunder-storm. Several 
persons who resided in the vicinity, having 
been awakened in their beds by this loud and 
rumbling noise, arose, and proceeding to a bog 
under a small hill, about two hundred yards 
from the river Severn, perceived a surprising 
commotion and shaking of the earth, and a 
little boiling up of water through the grass. 
They took a spade, and digging up a portion 
of the earth, the water immediately flew up to 
a great height, and was set on fire by a candle 
which was presented to it. 

To prevent the spring from being destroyed, 
an iron cistern has been placed over it, provided 
with a cover and a hole in the centre, through 
which the water may be viewed. If a lighted 
candle, or any burning substance, be presented 
to this aperture, the water instantly takes fire, 
and burns like spirit of wine, continuing to do 
so as long as the air is kept from it ; but on 
removing the cover of the cistern it quickly 
17* 



198 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

goes out. The apparent boiling and ascent of 
the water of this spring, are still more obviously 
the result of hydrogen gas, or inflammable air, 
than in the preceding instance of Wigan well. 



MUD LAKE OF JAVA. 

The following details relative to the volcanic 
springs of boiling mud in Java, are extracted 
from the Penang Gazette. 

" Having received an extraordinary account 
of a natural phenomenon in the plains of Gro- 
bogna, fifty paals northeast of Solo, a party 
set off from Solo the 25th September, 1814, to 
examine it. — On approaching the dass or vil- 
lage of Kuhoo, they saw between two tops of 
trees in a plain, an appearance like the surf 
breaking over rocks with a strong spray falling 
to leeward. Alighting, they went to the 
* Bluddugs,' as the Javanese call them. They 
are situated in the village of Kuhoo, and by 
Europeans are called by that name. We 
found them," says the narrator, " to be an ele- 
vated plain of mud about two miles in circum- 
ference, in the centre of which, immense bodies 
of soft mud were thrown up to the height of 
ten to fifteen feet, in the form of large bubbles, 
which, bursting, emitted great volumes of 
dense white smoke. These large bubbles, of 
which there were two, continued throwing up 
and bursting seven or eight times in a minute ; 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 199 

at times, they threw up two or three tons of 
mud. The party got to the leeward of the 
smoke, and found it to stink like the washings 
of a gun-barrel. As the bubbles burst, they 
threw the mud out from the centre, with a 
pretty loud noise, occasioned by the falling of 
the mud on that which surrounded it, and of 
which the plain is composed. It was difficult 
and dangerous to approach the large bubbles, 
as the ground was all a quagmire, except where 
the surface of the mud had become hardened 
by the sun ; — upon this, we approached cau- 
tiously to within fifty yards of one of the largest 
bubbles, or mud-pudding, as it might properly 
be called, for it was of the consistency of cus- 
tard-pudding, and was about a hundred yards 
in diameter : — here and there, where the foot 
accidentally rested on a spot not sufficiently 
hardened to bear, it sunk, to the no small dis- 
tress of the walker. 

" We also got close to a small bubble, (the 
plain was full of them, of different sizes,) and 
observed it attentively for some time. It ap- 
peared to heave and swell, and when the in- 
ternal air had raised it to some height, it burst, 
and the mud fell down in concentric circles ; 
in which state it remained quiet until a suffi- 
cient quantity of air again formed internally 
to raise and burst another bubble, and this 
continued at intervals of from about half a 
minute to two minutes. 

" From various other parts of the pudding 



200 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

round the large bubbles, there were occasion- 
ally small quantities of sand shot up like rock- 
ets to the height of twenty or thirty feet, un- 
accompanied by smoke : this was in parts 
where the mud was of too stiff a consistency 
to rise in bubbles. The mud at all places we 
came near was cold. 

" The water which drains from the mud is 
collected by the Javanese, and, being exposed 
in the hollows of split bamboos to the rays of 
the sun, deposites crystals of salt. The salt 
thus made is reserved exclusively for the use 
of the emperor of Solo ; in dry weather it 
yields thirty dudgins of 100 catties each, every 
month, but in wet or cloudy weather, less. 

"Next morning we rode two and a half 
paals, to a place in a forest called Ram-am, to 
view a salt lake, a mud hillock, and various 
boiling pools. 

" The lake was about half a mile in circum- 
ference, of a dirty-looking water, boiling up 
all over in gurgling eddies, but more particu- 
larly in the centre, which appeared like a strong 
spring. The water was quite cold, and tasted 
bitter, salt, and sour, and had an offensive 
smell. 

" About thirty yards from the lake stood the 
mud-hillock, which was about fifteen feet high 
from the level of the earth. The diameter of 
its base was about twenty-five yards, and its 
top about eight feet, and in form an exact cone. 
The top is open, and the interior keeps con- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 201 

stantly boiling and heaving up like the blud- 
dugs. The hillock is entirely formed of mud 
which has flowed out of the top. Every rise 
of the mud was accompanied by a rumbling 
noise from the bottom of the hillock, which 
was distinctly heard for some seconds before 
the bubble burst; the outside of the hillock 
was quite firm. We stood on the edge of the 
opening and sounded it, and found it to be 
eleven fathoms deep. The mud was more 
liquid than at the bluddugs, and no smoke 
was emitted either from the lake, hillock, or 
pools. 

" Close to the foot of the hillock was a small 
pool of the same water as the lake, which ap- 
peared exactly like a pot of water boiling vio- 
lently ; it was shallow, except in the centre, 
into which we thrust a stick twelve feet long, 
but found no bottom. The hole not being per- 
pendicular, we could not sound it without a 
line. 

** About 200 yards from the lake were two 
very large pools or springs, eight and twelve 
feet in diameter; they were like the small 
pool, but boiled more violently and stunk ex- 
cessively. We could not sound them, for the 
same reason which prevented our sounding 
the small pool. 

" We heard the boiling thirty yards before 

we came to the pools, resembling the noise of 

a waterfall. These pools did not overflow — 

of course the bubbling was occasioned by the 

10 



202 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

rising of air alone. The water of the bluddugs 
and of the lake is used medicinally by the 
Javanese. 



THE FOUNTAIN OF VAUCLUSE. 

This fountain, one of the most celebrated in 
Europe, is situated about five miles from Avi- 
gnon ; its waters are sweet and limpid, but it 
is only accessible by passing over frightful 
precipices. Its vicinity is covered with beau- 
tiful woods, whose cool refreshing shades 
breathe delicious odors. Near this fountain 
was the residence of the celebrated Italian 
poet, Petrarch, whose verses are full of fire 
and pathos. He sung, by turns, his fair mis- 
tress, Laura, the fountain of Vaucluse, and his 
beautiful hermitage. Laura was not less ad- 
mired for her virtue and talents, than for the 
graces of her person. The name of Petrarch 
naturally calls to mind that of Laura, Vaucluse, 
the sweets of friendship, the pleasures of re- 
tirement, and the Muses. 

The fountain of Vaucluse flows from a vast 
cave, at the foot of a rock of an amazing 
height and perpendicular as a wall. This 
cavern, where the hand of man never labored, 
is 100 feet high, and at least as much in ex- 
tent ; it forms a double cave ; the exterior 
measures 60 feet in height at the entrance, the 
interior 30. Here reigns a dread silence, and 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 203 

utter darkness, which inspires involuntary hor- 
ror. In this second cavern there is a sheet of 
water so pure that we could not find, (observes 
a celebrated traveller,) by the light of our 
torches, the rock along which it passes in the 
least discolored. 

Some daring persons, in the beginning of 
the last century, ventured in a small boat to 
sound this vast gulf; but they were unsuc- 
cessful, probably because the strength of the 
water carried the lead still towards the sur- 
face. A few steps from the outward cavern, 
the fountain finds an extensive issue, whence 
it rushes with impetuosity over great rocks, 
forming various cascades, till, meeting no ob- 
stacle, it divides gently into two large branch- 
es, in the midst of a beautiful country, and at 
last falls into the Rhone, under the name of 
the Jorque. 



FOUNTAIN AT PEROUL. 
There is a remarkable fountain at Perouh 
near Montpellier, in Languedoc, which boils 
up furiously in small bubbles. This manifest- 
ly proceeds from a vapor breaking out of the 
earth ; for upon digging near it, and pouring 
water upon the place newly dug, the same 
bubbling immediately ensues ; and in several 
dry places thereabouts, are found small venti- 
ducts, or spiracles, at which a steam issues 



204 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

forth, strong enough to remove light bodies, 
such as straws, leaves, or feathers. It is ob- 
servable, that this vapor does not take fire 
upon the application of a lighted candle, like 
the fumes emitted from the boiling spring near 
Wigan, in Lancashire. 



FOUNTAIN AT PLINANIA. 

At Plinania, in the country of the Grisons, 
is a singular fountain, which bursts from a 
rock, and falls in natural cascades into the 
lake of Como. This spring ebbs and flows 
thrice every day, with surprising regularity, 
except in stormy weather. From being almost 
dry, it gradually rises till it forms a considera- 
ble stream, and then as gradually subsides, till 
the period of its swell returns. Pliny's de- 
scription of its ebb and flow is written upon 
the wall of an adjoining apartment. 



CASCADE IN THE GARDENS AT CHATSWORTH. 

Near the south and southeast sides of the 
house, are those water-works, which, about 
sixty years ago, gave the gardens of Chats- 
worth extraordinary celebrity. The principal 
of these is a cascade, which consists of a series 
of steps, extending a considerable distance 
down a steep hill, crowned at the top by a 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 205 

temple, that is supplied with water from a very 
capacious reservoir. 

This fane (says Mr. Warner) should be dedi- 
cated to Mercury, the god of deceit, as a piece 
of roguery is practised upon the incautious 
stranger within its very sanctuary, from the 
floor of which a multitude of little fountains 
spout up, w T hile he is admiring the prospect 
from the portal, and quickly wet him to the 
skin. When this cascade is put in motion, the 
water rushes with prodigious force from the 
roof and ornaments of the temple, and falling 
into a basin in front of the building, is thence 
discharged down the flight of steps. 

Among the other curiosities of this nature 
are a triton and some sea-horses, from whose 
heads small streams issue ; a fountain, which 
throw r s up water to the height of 90 feet ; and 
a copper tree, representing a decayed willow, 
from every leaf of which water is made to issue, 
by the turning of a cock, so as to form an arti- 
ficial shower. 



THE FALL OF STAUBBACH. 

At Lauterbruennen, in Switzerland, is a 
celebrated torrent called the Fall of Staub- 
bach, which rolls perpendicularly from so vast 
a height, as to resolve itself into a fine spray, 
resembling a cloud of dust ; and from this ap- 
pearance it takes its name, which means a 
18 



206 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

spring of dust. The greatest part of the water 
falls clear over the overhanging mountain 
during its whole descent ; but the remainder 
dashes, about half way, against a projection 
of the rock, and flies off with great violence. 
The perpendicular height is said to be about 
930 feet. When the sun shines in an opposite 
direction, a small rainbow is reflected towards 
the bottom of the fall, which gradually dimin- 
ishes as the spectator approaches. 



REMARKABLE CASCADES IN SWITZERLAND. 

On the west side of a lake near Wedden- 
schweii is a cascade, which, bursting from 
surrounding trees, falls a few feet on the ridge 
of rock, and then precipitates itself in mid-air 
for about 50 feet, without touching the sides 
of the precipice. The effect is peculiarly 
striking ; nor can a contemplative spectator 
sufficiently admire the vast amphitheatre of 
rock, the sunbeams playing on the falling 
waters, and the noise of the torrent, contrast- 
ed with the tranquil beauties of the adjacent 
lake. 

The cascade of Arpenas, in the neighborhood 
of Magland, rushes from an impending rock, 
with a fall of 300 feet perpendicular : it is di- 
vided into an almost imperceptible spray ; and 
afterwards collecting itself, trickles down the 
sides of the mountains in a thousand little 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 207 

streams. Mr. Cox observes, that this body of 
water is much more considerable than that of 
Staubbach, and that the fall appeared quite 
as high. 



LAKE VETTER. 

Among the lakes of Sweden, that called 
Vetter is so remarkable, in many respects, that 
it deserves particular attention. It divides 
East and West Gothland, being in length, from 
north to south, above 80 miles, and about 18 
broad in the middle, growing narrower to- 
wards each extremity. The water of this lake 
is very clear, and in some places so deep, that 
it has been sounded with 300 fathoms of line 
without finding the bottom. 

For the most part it is free from rocks, and 
has but few islands, the principal of which is 
Visingsoe, lying in the middle of the lake. It 
is often disturbed by storms, and sometimes so 
suddenly, that the surface begins to be ruffled 
before the least breath of wind is perceived, 
so that the cause seems to proceed from the 
bottom of the waters ; and it is no uncommon 
thing for boats to be tossed by a storm in one 
part of the lake, while others at a small dis- 
tance enjoy a perfect calm. 

That such eruptions and agitations of the 
water are promoted by subterraneous winds, 
seems to be confirmed by various phenomena ; 



208 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN*. 

for immediately before a storm, and while the 
sky is yet clear, there is perceived a noise like 
thunder in the lake, which is always followed 
by a tempest. Of this the inhabitants of Vis- 
ingsoe are more sensible than any others ; for 
from that part of the island whence the wind 
will blow the next day, they hear a confused 
noise like the firing of cannon ; and when this 
rumbling is heard in the east, it is generally 
followed by rain and hail. 

Some people have likewise observed, while 
the water has been very calm, a great number 
of little clouds, like so many darts, rising up 
from the bottom of the lake, which, uniting in 
the air, form a kind of mizzling rain ; whence 
it plainly appears, that this is, in a great 
measure, owing to subterraneous winds. To 
such winds, also, together with those from 
above, we may attribute the sudden thawing 
of the ice in the spring, which one minute is 
strong enough to bear horses and sledges, and 
the next is broken to pieces. 

The strange noise of the waters which pre- 
cedes this terrible eruption, warns travellers 
to make the best of their way ; but those who 
happen to be at a great distance from land are 
immediately drowned, or float upon shoals of 
ice till they meet with relief ; and what is still 
more dangerous, the least blast of wind will 
sometimes sink the ice suddenly to the bottom. 

The violent under-currents of water observed 
in this lake are also very surprising, which, 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 209 

directly opposing the winds and waves, give 
the fishermen a great deal of trouble. From 
these, as well as from its unfathomable depth 
and subterraneous winds, it is supposed to have 
a communication under ground with another 
large lake, called Vernier, about 40 miles to 
the westward ; and this seems to be confirmed 
by several whirlpools that lie between these 
lakes, two of which have been sounded, and 
found of a vast depth. What further counte- 
nances this opinion is, that some years, with- 
out any visible cause, the w r aters increase, and 
decrease again the following year, as several 
persons have observed. 

In the vicinity of this lake is a spring called 
the Hungry or Prophetic Fountain, because 
the peasants assert that it never has plenty 
of water but when there is a scarcity of corn 
the following year. It lies in a valley encom- 
passed with sandy hills, and has this peculiari- 
ty, that in a rainy season it is commonly dry, 
whereas in the driest summers it sometimes 
overflows the highway near Vadstein. In 
1685, which w r as a very wet year, this spring 
was quite dried up ; but the next summer, 
which was not so rainy, it was observed to in- 
crease ; and in the remarkably dry summer of 
1705, when all the neighboring springs en- 
tirely failed, this had a plentiful stream of 
water. 

Cataracts are frequent in the rivers of Swe- 
den ; but the most noted of all, and the only 
18* 



210 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

one worth giving an account of, is that within 
a few leagues of Gottenburg ; where a river, 
which issues from the lake Venner, falls down 
a prodigious high precipice into a deep pit, 
with a terrible noise, and with such violence 
that large masts, which are floated down the 
river to Gottenburg, frequently dive so far 
under water by the fall, if they happen to pitch 
endways, that some are half an hour, others 
three quarters, and some a whole hour before 
they rise up again to the surface. Many at- 
tempts have been made to find the depth of 
this hole, with lines of several hundred fath 
oms, but no bottom could ever be discovered. 



CIRENITZ LAKE. 

None of the curiosities in Germany are more 
surprising than the Cirenitzer sea, or lake, in 
Carniola, so called from the neighboring town 
of Cirenitz. This lake is four or five miles in 
length, and about two in breadth, surrounded, 
at some distance, with mountains, which are 
richly clothed with wood, and abound with 
deer, wild-boars, hares, and other game. It is 
said, that in this lake a person may sow and 
reap, hunt and fish, within the space of a year ; 
but this is the least remarkable circumstance 
belonging to it, and is no more than may be 
said of almost any other spot that is overflowed 
at certain seasons. 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 211 

The most wonderful circumstance is its ebb- 
ing and flowing. The former always happens 
in a long drought, when it runs off through 
eighteen holes at the bottom, w 7 hich form so 
many eddies or whirlpools. Valvasor mentions 
a singular mode of fishing in one of these holes, 
and says, that when the water is entirely run 
off into its subterraneous reservoirs, the peas- 
ants venture with lights into that cavity, which 
runs in a hard rock, three or four fathoms un- 
der ground, to a solid bottom ; whence the 
water running through small holes, as through 
a sieve, the fishes are left behind, caught, as it 
were, in a net provided by nature. 

On the first appearance of its ebbing, a bell 
is rung at Cirenitz, upon which all the peas- 
ants in the neighboring villages, with the ut- 
most diligence, prepare for fishing ; for the fish 
seldom stay till the water is considerably de- 
creased. Above a hundred peasants exert 
themselves on this occasion, and both men and 
women promiscuously run into the lake with- 
out any covering, though both the magistrates 
and clergy have used their endeavors to sup- 
press this indecent custom, particularly on ac- 
count of the young lay-brothers of a neighbor- 
ing convent who have the privilege of fishing 
there, and, notwithstanding the prohibitions of 
the fathers, leave the convent to see this un- 
common spectacle. At these ebbings, an in- 
credible number of pikes, trout, tench, eels, 
carp, perch, &c, are caught in the lake ; and 



212 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

what are not consumed, or disposed of while 
fresh, are dried by the fire. 

Though the whole lake is left dry, except 
two or three pools, yet, upon the return of the 
water, it abounds in fish as much as it did be- 
fore ; and the fishes that return with the water 
are of a very large size. It is also remarkable 
that when it begins to rain hard, three of the 
cavities spout up water to the height of twelve 
or eighteen feet ; and if the rain continue, and 
be accompanied with violent thunder, the water 
bubbles out of the holes through which it had 
been absorbed, and the whole lake is again 
filled in 24, and often in 18 hours. Sometimes 
not only fish, but live ducks, with grass and 
fish in their stomachs, have emerged from these 
cavities. 



OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 

Though the bottom of the ocean is in some 
places a plane ; in some very hollow, like a 
valley ; in others variegated with hill and dale, 
as on land ; yet some parts are very frightful, 
as appears from the following account. It is 
told by Kircher, that in the time of Frederick, 
king of Sicily, there lived a celebrated diver, 
whose name was Nicholas, and who, from his 
amazing skill in swimming and perseverance 
under water, was surnamed the Fish. 

The curiosity of this king had long been ex- 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 213 

cited by the accounts he had heard of the bot- 
tom of the Gulf of Charybdis ; and he conceived 
that it would be a proper opportunity to have 
more certain information, by getting Nicholas 
to take a view of it. He therefore commanded 
our poor diver to examine the bottom of this 
dangerous whirlpool ; and, as an excitement 
to his obedience, he ordered a golden cup to 
be flung into it. 

Nicholas, though not insensible of the dan- 
ger, yet influenced by various motives, soon 
jumped into the gulf, and was instantly swal- 
lowed up in its bosom. He continued a long 
while under the water, during which time the 
king and his attendants remained on the shore, 
anxious to see what would become of him ; 
when, to their great surprise, he appeared, 
buffeting upon the surface, holding the cup in 
triumph in one hand, and making his way 
good among the waves with the other. 

It may be supposed he was received with 
great applause upon his arrival on shore ; the 
cup was made the reward of his adventure : 
the king ordered him to be taken proper care 
of, and as he was weary and overcome by his 
labor, after a hearty meal, he was put to bed 
and permitted to refresh himself further by 
sleep. Having been restored to his usual vi- 
gor, he was brought to the king to give a nar- 
rative of the wonders he had seen : and, after 
observing he would never have obeyed the 
king's command if he had known half the 



214 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

danger, his account was to the following ef- 
fect. 

There were four things, he said, that render- 
ed the gulf terrible, not only to men, but to 
the fishes themselves : first, the force of the 
waters bursting up from the bottom, which 
requires great strength to resist ; secondly, 
the abruptness of the rocks, that on every side 
threatened sudden ruin ; thirdly, the force of 
the whirlpool dashing against the rocks ; and 
fourthly, the number and magnitude of poly- 
pus fish, some of which a-ppeared as large as a 
man, and which, everywhere sticking against 
the rocks, projected their fibrous arms to en- 
tangle him. 

Being asked how he was able so readily to 
find the cup, he replied, that it happened to be 
thrown by the waves into the cavity of a rock 
against which he himself was forced in his de- 
scent. This account, however, did not satisfy 
the king's curiosity. Being requested to ven- 
ture once more into the gulf for further dis- 
coveries, he at first refused : but the king be- 
ing desirous of having the most exact informa- 
tion possible of all things to be found in the 
gulf, repeated his solicitations, and to give 
them still greater weight, produced a larger 
cup than the other, and added also a purse of 
gold. 

Upon these considerations, the unhappy Ni- 
cholas once more plunged into the whirlpool, 
and was never heard of more. The above not 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 215 

only sets forth the dreadful appearance of the 
bottom of the sea, but serves as a lesson of 
virtue, to repress our presumption and thirst 
after gold. 



FORMATION OF PEARLS. 

Pearls are produced by a testaceous fish of 
the oyster kind, which lives in the waters of 
the East and West Indies, and in other seas in 
warm latitudes. They are found in some parts 
of the globe in clusters of a great number, on 
rocks in the depth of the sea. Such places are 
called pearl-banks, of which the most famous 
are near the coast of Ceylon, and that of Japan, 
and in the Persian Gulf, near the island of 
Bahreim or Bahrem ; near the coasts of Java, 
Sumatra, &c. the pearl is also found. The 
finest and most costly pearls are the Oriental. 
Some consider pearls to be unfructified eggs, 
others a morbid concretion or calculus, produ- 
ced by the endeavor of the animal in the shell, 
to fill up holes in the shell ; others consider 
pearls as mere concretions of the juice of 
which the shell has been formed, and with 
which the animal annually augments it. 

The worth of a pearl is in proportion to its 
magnitude, round form, fine polish, and clear 
lustre. The largest are of the size of a small 
walnut ; but these are very rare. Those of 
the size of a cherry are found more frequently, 



216 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

yet still very rarely. Pearls are round, pear- 
formed, onion-formed, and irregularly shaped. 
The small ones, sold by weight, are called 
ounce-pearls, the smallest, seed-pearls ; these 
are converted into powder. 

In Europe, pearls of " white water" are the 
most sought for ; the Indians and Arabians 
prefer those of " yellow water." Some have a 
lead color, some incline to black, some are to- 
tally black. Pearls are found in the Elster, a 
river in the Voigtland, in the kingdom of Sax- 
ony, from its origin down to the small town 
Elsterberg, as well as in the rivulets which 
fall into the Elster. Since 1621, a pearl fishery 
has been established there ; of course for the 
benefit of the sovereign. Also in the river 
Watawa, in Bohemia, and in the Moldau river, 
from Krumau to Frauenberg, pearls are found, 
sometimes of great beauty, and difficult to be 
distinguished from the Oriental pearl. The 
fishery there is the property of the owner of 
the land. There are also pearl fisheries on the 
coasts of Scotland. 

Even in antiquity, pearls were an object of 
luxury. A pearl which Pliny valued at about 
$375,000 of our present money, Cleopatra is 
said to have dissolved at a banquet, and drunk 
off to Antony's health. Another, called la 
peregrina, was given to Philip II. of Spain. 
It was oval, and of the size of a pigeon's egg, 
and was valued at 80,000 ducats. Pearls were 
formerly used in medicine ; but their medicinal 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 217 

operation is not different from that of any other 
calcareous earth. 

Linnaeus discovered how to produce artificial 
pearls from the common river mussels, but the 
process has never been published, nor has it 
ever come into use. The shells of the pearl 
oyster are the substance called mother-of-pearl. 
There is a very curious passage in Philostratus, 
in which Apollonius the philosopher relates, 
that the inhabitants of the shores of the Red 
Sea, after having calmed the sea by means of 
oil, dove after the shell-fish, enticed them, by 
means of some bait, to open their shells, and 
having pricked the animal with a sharp-pointed 
instrument, received the liquor that flowed 
from them in small holes made in an iron ves- 
sel, in which it hardened into real pearls. 

The Chinese at present cause a certain kind 
of mussels to form pearls. In the beginning 
of summer, when the mussels repair to the 
surface of the w r ater, and open their shells, five 
or six small beads made of mother-of-pearl, 
and strung on a thread, are thrown into each 
of them. At the end of the year, when the 
mussels are drawn up and opened, the beads 
are found covered with a pearly crust, in such 
a manner that they have a perfect resemblance 
to real pearls ; and the truth of this, says Beek- 
mann, in his History of Inventions, cannot be 
doubted. 

19 



218 WONDERS OF THE OCEA>'. 

THE PEARL FISHERY. 

The origin of procuring this valuable orna- 
ment for the person, must have arisen from 
accidentally discovering the pearl within oys- 
ters taken for food, it is evident ; but it is impos- 
sible to ascertain when the search became 
systematical, though it is extremely probable 
that it has been so for very many ages. 

The pearl-oysters of the coast of Ceylon are 
all of one species, and possess the same regu- 
larity of form ; but they assume different qual- 
ities and have different denominations, suited 
to the nature of the ground where they are 
situated, and from the appearance of zoophytes 
adhering to the external surface of their shells. 
They resemble a cockle in shape, which is an 
imperfect oval, and their circumference is 
generally about nine inches and a half, having 
a segment as it were cut ofF where the joint 
of the two shells occurs. The interior of these 
is far more brilliant and beautiful than the 
pearl they enclose ; and the outside is smooth, 
except when injured by the usurpations of 
sponges, corals, and other marine productions. 
The flesh of the animal is white, and of a glu- 
tinous consistency. Perhaps no class of ani- 
mated nature undergoes more unmerited per- 
secution and destruction than the pearl-oyster ; 
when situated in their native regions, they af- 
ford a foundation for the habitations of other 
animals, and millions of them are dragged 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 219 

from their banks and thrown away for what 
they are vainly supposed to contain, and that 
an intruder or a disease. One of the banks 
of Ceylon furnishes oysters to which zoophytes 
are attached, apparently belonging to the class 
of sponges, and these generally resemble a 
funnel or cup, and grow to a size that com- 
pletely overshadows the oyster ; others of dif- 
ferent banks have a substance adhering to 
them tinged with red. The above are found 
to contain the finest pearls : some escape free 
from encumbrance, and thousands are com- 
pelled to bear trees of coral on them of five 
times their own weight. 

The oyster is fastened to the rocks at the 
bottom of the sea by quantities of hairy fibres. 
By this means they are not readily swept from 
their original station, and yet possess the ad- 
vantage of being conveyed to some distance 
from it by the motion of the water ; besides, 
they are connected to each other in the same 
manner. It frequently happens that an old 
oyster, surrounded by young ones, is brought 
up by the divers, and the latter have been as- 
certained to possess, even when little larger 
than a grain of sand, the power of moving 
themselves by the extension and contraction 
of what is termed the beard. The violence 
of the waves at the time of the monsoons oc- 
casions great changes in the state of the banks, 
when incredible numbers of them are buried 
by the shifting sand, and that is sometimes 



220 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

removed by the same power acting in a con- 
trary direction. 

It is supposed from many concurring circum- 
stances, that the pearl-oyster arrives at matu- 
rity at the close of seven years ; after this pe- 
riod it is imagined that it dies, when the body 
decaying is washed away by the sea. A bed 
was discovered a few years since composed 
almost wholly of empty shells. 

When the pearl is in a state of perfection 
they are of a brilliant white ; some have been 
found of a beautiful tint of pink, of the color 
of gold, and a few entirely black. These va- 
riations are, however, very uncommon. 

The pearls are discovered near the angles 
of the shells and close to the hinge, where the 
animal is most thick and fleshy ; they are 
generally numerous, and in some instances 
150 have fallen from one oyster; on the other 
hand, a hundred oysters have been opened 
whence a pearl could not be extracted fit for 
any purpose whatever. Attempts were made 
some years past to transplant this species of 
oysters, but without success, as they invariably 
died during their transportation. 

The first step previously to a fishery is the 
examination of the banks, which takes place 
at the end of October, during the short interval 
of fine weather usual between the close of the 
southwest monsoon and the commencement 
of the northeast. One pilot, two divers, and 
eight or more sailors to each boat, are em- 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 221 

ployed upon this service, and there are gener- 
ally nine boats. The superintendent on the 
part of the government accompanies the prin- 
cipal arripanaar, or pilot, who is taught his 
profession from his infancy, inheriting it from 
his father in the manner of most occupations 
in the East. 

The boats visit the bank in a body, and the 
divers frequently descending ascertain its ex- 
act position, and at the same time bring up a 
thousand or more oysters as specimens, which 
are examined by persons who from experience 
are enabled to judge whether it is probable they 
are of an age calculated to answer the pur- 
poses of the intended fishing ; this examina- 
tion is not, however, deemed sufficient, and 
the oysters are opened, when the pearls are 
extracted, and after sorting them they are 
valued. 

In the progress of this preliminary part of 
the operation, the oj^sters are found at various 
periods of growth ; those not more than one 
year old are very small, being less than an 
inch in circumference, and the full-grown oys- 
ters are as large as the palm of the hand of a 
man ; between the ages of four and five years 
the seed-pearl only is discovered ; but after 
this period they increase in size very rapidly, 
and, as has been before observed, they die af- 
ter the eighth year. After completely satisfy- 
ing themselves as to the probability of future 
success, the result is published for the infor- 
19* 



222 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

mation of those who may be inclined to par- 
take of the probable advantages. Since the 
island of Ceylon has been made a part of the 
British empire, each fishing season has either 
been reserved for the exclusive use of govern- 
ment, or rented to speculative persons ; but 
the produce has never amounted to £200,000 
on any one occasion. The most common prac- 
tice is to farm the season to an individual, 
who lets the right of partaking to others. 

The fourteen banks or beds on which the 
03 r sters are found, are situated at the bottom 
of the Gulf of Manaar, and are included in a 
space about thirty miles in length from north 
to south, and twenty-four in breadth. It has 
been ascertained that the largest of these beds 
is ten miles long and two broad ; the remain- 
der are much smaller, nor are they all equally 
productive, as it seldom happens that more 
than three beds can be marked for use in any 
given season. The spots where the oysters 
lie are not raised higher than the surrounding 
parts except by their accumulation, and the 
coral rocks on which the most valuable are 
placed are on a level with the sand; the depth 
of water over them varies from eighteen to 
ninety feet, and the most convenient and best 
fishing is at the depth of between six and eight 
fathoms. 

When it is thought proper to undertake a 
fishery, advertisements are issued in the Eng- 
lish and Malabar languages, inviting the pos- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 223 

sessors of boats suited for the purpose and all 
divers, to meet on the 20th of February in the 
Bay of Condaatchy ; vessels of this description 
assemble from various places on the coast of 
Coromandel, completely equipped and furnish- 
ed with every necessary for the accomplish- 
ment of their intentions ; these are open, of 
about one ton burden, forty- five feet in length, 
seven or eight wide, and three feet deep in 
the hold ; and are so constructed as to draw 
not more than eight or ten inches of water, un- 
less they are heavily laden, and are navigated 
with one sail only. They have a complement 
of twenty-three men, whose employments are 
thus appropriated : one pilot ; one man for the 
helm ; another to take care of the boat ; one 
to lade oat water ; ten divers ; ten mundrees, 
who haul up the divers, the stones, and the 
baskets ; and a peon attends upon the part of 
the renter, to take care that his interests do 
not suffer from fraud. 

A second examination of the banks takes 
place a few days before the operations begin, 
which is merely for the purpose of anchoring 
buoys to point out the situation of the banks, 
and those parts of them most abounding with 
the object of search. A small sloop is from 
the first stationed in the centre of the banks, 
where she remains for the double purpose of 
guarding the buoys and as a guide to the boats. 

The pilot-boats make a circuit of twelve or 
fifteen miles round the sloop, sounding and 



224 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

sending down the divers, and upon discovering 
a place remarkable for the number of oysters, 
a buoy is immediately placed over it, which 
consists of triangular rafts of wood, fastened 
by a cable attached to a wooden anchor sunk 
by two stones. The rafts support flags of va- 
rious colors; and drawings of these are insert- 
ed in a book, where a minute description is 
given of the name, quality, and age of the oys- 
ters on the bank under each flag. 

Mr. Cordiner, from whose late excellent ac- 
count of Ceylon we have extracted most of the 
preceding particulars, says, " As the boats ar- 
rive at Condaatchy to be employed in the fish- 
ery, they are regularly numbered, and their 
description and the names of their crew are 
registered in a book. The fishery for the sea- 
son of 1804 was let by government to a native 
of Jaffhapatam, who had resided for some 
years previously to it on the coast of Coroman- 
del. For thirty days' fishing, with 150 boats, 
he came under an obligation to pay 300,000 
Porto Novo pagodas, or £120,000 sterling. 
He sold the right of fishing to some of the best 
equipped boats for 3000 pagodas each, and that 
of others for 2000 ; but kept by far the great- 
er part of them to fish on his own account." 

After every arrangement is completed and 
the boats are ready to put to sea, their navi- 
gators and the divers are roused from their 
slumbers by the discharge of a cannon, the 
sounding of horns, and the beating of a kind 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 225 

of drum called by the natives tom-toms ; this 
signal is generally made rather before mid- 
night, when a breeze from the land prevails ; 
the confusion that immediately follows the 
movements of upwards of six thousand persons 
in the dark may be better conceived than de- 
scribed ; but in defiance of every obstacle, 
these silly people will not depart till they have 
performed certain ablutions and incantations, 
calculated as they suppose to forward their 
views. When they have reached the banks 
they cast anchor and wait the approach of 
day, which no sooner arrives than each boat 
takes its station : at six or seven o'clock the 
diving commences. To facilitate this opera- 
tion, a species of open scaffolding is projected 
from each side of the vessel, and it is from the 
scaffold the tackle is suspended, three stones 
on one side and two on the other. The author 
we have just mentioned gives so clear and 
comprehensive an account of this dangerous 
business, which he saw performed, that we 
shall give part of it in his own words. 

"The diving-stone hangs from over by a 
light country rope and slip-knot, and descends 
about five feet into the water. It is a stone 
of 561bs. weight, of the shape of a sugar loaf. 
The rope passes through a hole in the top of a 
stone, above which a strong loop is formed, 
resembling a stirrup iron, to receive the foot 
of the diver," who is entirely naked, except a 
piece of enbrio wrapped round his waist ; 



226 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

swimming near the side of the vessel, he takes 
the rope in one hand and places his foot in the 
stirrup on the stone ; a basket is then thrown 
into the water to him, made of a hoop and 
network below it, in which he places the oth- 
er foot. 

After preparing his lungs for ceasing to 
breathe, he presses his nostrils firmly with 
one hand, and with the other pulls the rope 
forming the slip-knot ; the stone carries him 
instantly to the bottom, where he no sooner ar- 
rives than he disengages himself from the stir- 
rup, which, with the stone, is immediately 
drawn up by the people in the boat. The di- 
ver throws himself forward upon his face, and 
grasps every thing in his way as rapidly as 
possible, and putting it into the basket gives a 
signal when it is full by pulling the rope, when 
that also is hauled up ; he then ascends by the 
rope, and frequently arrives at the surface be- 
fore the basket ; such is the consequence of 
custom, that though the diver cannot descend 
again without an interval of rest, he seldom 
enters the boat, remaining swimming and 
floating about during the whole day. 

Besides the other dangers peculiar to this 
pursuit, the divers are liable to be devoured 
by sharks ; but whatever may be the cause, 
an accident seldom occurs, which these super- 
stitious people attribute to the powerful aid 
of shark charmers, without whom and their 
diabolical incantations they will on no account 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 227 

undertake their labors. The most experienced 
diver has never been known to remain longer 
than one minute and a half under water, in 
which time he may gather 150 oysters, if they 
are numerous ; but he sometimes gains not 
more than from five to a dozen, accompanied 
by coral, pieces of rock, and other substances, 
for he has no time to separate and examine 
what he seizes. When 300 boats are employ- 
ed in the fishery, it is supposed that at least 
1500 divers are constantly descending, the 
noise of which resembles the incessant roaring 
of a cataract. The return of the fleet in reg- 
ular order, at one or two, P. M., and their ar- 
rival, with the crowds waiting to welcome 
their return, presents a very animating and 
gratifying spectacle. 

After the most valuable pearls are selected, 
they are sent to be drilled ; a most ingenious 
and delicate operation, which is thus perform- 
ed : a piece of wood in the shape of an invert- 
ed cone is placed upon three legs, raising it 
about one foot from the ground ; holes of va- 
rious dimensions are made in the surface to 
receive the pearls. The person who drills 
sits close to the machine ; he then drives the 
pearls steadily into their sockets ; " a well-tem- 
pered needle is fixed in a reed five inches long, 
with an iron point at the other end, formed to 
play in the socket of a cocoa-nut shell, which 
presses on the forehead of the driller. A bow 
is formed of a piece of bamboo and a string. 



228 WONDERS OV THE OCEAN". 

The workman brings his right knee in a line 
with the machine, and places on it a small cup, 
formed of a part of a cocoa-nut shell, which is 
filled with water to moderate the heat of fric- 
tion. He bends his head over the machine, 
and applying the point of the needle to a pearl 
sunk in one of the pits, drills with great facil- 
ity, every now and then dexterously dipping 
the little finger of his right hand in the water, 
and applying it to the needle without impeding 
the operation. In this manner he bores a 
pearl in the space of two or three minutes, and 
in the course of a day perforates 300 small, or 
600 large pearls." 

There are different methods of fishing for 
pearls practised in other parts of the world ; 
but as the Ceylon fishery eclipses them all, 
and the simplicity of the invention is so obvi- 
ous, it would be well if it were universally 
adopted. 



THE SEA-SERPENT. 

The existence of an enormous marine ani- 
mal of the serpent shape, and thence called 
Sea-serpent, or Sea-snake, is mentioned by 
Pontoppidan, a Danish bishop, in his Natural 
History of Norway, and has since been noticed 
by some voyagers. He says that these crea- 
tures make their appearance in the months of 
July and August, which is their spawning 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN*. 229 

time, when they come to the surface in calm 
weather. If the wind raises the waves, they 
descend. Numerous persons, he observes, 
agree very well in the general description of 
the animal ; and he thinks it very strange that 
any one should doubt the existence of it. 

In writing of the sea-serpent, Pontoppidan 
quotes a letter he had received from Mr. 
Tuchsen of Heroe. He says, the whole ani- 
mal is of a dark-brown color, but is speckled 
and variegated with light streaks or spots, that 
shine like tortoise-shell ; that, if any one in- 
quires how many folds may be counted in a 
sea-snake, the answer is, the number is not 
always the same, but depends upon the various 
sizes of them — five-and-twenty is the greatest 
number I find well attested. He also says 
these creatures shoot through the water like 
an arrow out of a bow, seeking constantly the 
coldest places. 

Within the last, thirty years, a great number 
of persons, among them many mariners, have 
asserted, in the most undoubting manner, that 
they have seen a similar creature on the coasts 
of the United States, chiefly on those of New 
England. By different witnesses, the size of 
the animal has been differently estimated at 
from one hundred, or one hundred and twenty 
to forty-five feet in length ; but all accounts 
agree in regard to the protuberances on its 
back, its vertical sinuosities, and its serpent- 
shaped head. A more particular account of 
20 



230 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the appearance and habits of this animal, as 
far as they have been observed, may be found 
in Professor Silliman's Journal of Science for 
April, 1820, and in the Natural History com- 
piled from Buffon, Cuvier, and others, publish- 
ed at Boston, 1831. An abstract of this ac- 
count is annexed. 

In the year 1804, a letter was addressed 
by Alden Bradford, LL.D., to the Hon. John 
Q. Adams, transmitting several documents, 
tending to establish the fact, that a large sea- 
serpent had been seen in and near the Bay of 
Penobscot, at various times. The first of these 
documents is a letter from the Rev. A. Cum- 
mings, of Sullivan, dated August 17, 1803, to 
another clergyman, Mr. H. McLean, with some 
remarks by the latter. The second is another 
letter, dated August, 1804, from Mr. Cummings 
to Mr. Bradford. 

The sea-serpent was seen by Mr. Cum- 
mings, his wife, daughter, and another lady, as 
they were on their passage to Belfast, between 
Cape Rosoi and Long Island. It was in the 
month of July ; the sea was calm ; there was 
very little wind ; and the first appearance of 
the serpent was near Long Island. Mr. C. 
supposed it to be a large shoal of fish, with a 
seal at one end of it ; but he wondered the seal 
should rise out of the water so much higher 
than usual : as he drew near, they discovered 
the whole appearance to be one animal in the 
form of a serpent. He had not the horizontal, 



WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 231 

but an ascending and descending serpentine 
motion. This account also refers to the de- 
scriptions given by other persons of similar 
animals seen by people on Fox Island, in Pe- 
nobscot Bay, at different times, at Ash Point — 
at or near Boothbay — at Muscongus Bay — and 
off Meduncook. 

The declaration of Eleazer Crabtree is then 
given, who lived at Fox Island, in the Bay of 
Penobscot, in the year 1777 or 1778. He had 
frequently heard of a sea monster frequenting 
the waters near the shore ; and doubting the 
fact, he went down one day upon receiving in- 
formation from a neighbor, that he was then 
in the sea near his house. He saw r a large 
animal in the form of a snake, lying almost 
motionless in the water, about 500 feet from 
the bank where he stood. His head was about 
four feet above the surface ; he appeared 100 
feet long ; and he supposed him to be three 
feet in diameter. Many other inhabitants, 
upon whose veracity he could depend, had also 
declared to him that at other times they had 
seen such an animal. 

The following statements relate to more re- 
cent appearances of the sea-serpent. Pie was 
seen on the 20th of June, 1815, by Elkanah 
Finney, a respectable mariner, at Warren's 
Cove, near Plymouth, Massachusetts. Mr. Fin- 
ney had always been accustomed to foreign 
voyages and fishing ; and had frequently seen 
whales and various species of large fish. He 



232 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

deposed on oath, in August, 1817, that he first 
saw something which appeared to the naked 
eye like drift sea-weed, lie then looked through 
a perspective glass, and saw it was an aquatic 
animal, unknown to him. It was in rapid 
motion northwardly, about a quarter of a mile 
from the shore. At first it showed a length of 
about thirty feet, but in turning, about half a 
mile off, it displayed at least one hundred feet. 

It afterwards came nearer, when it stopped 
and lay entirely still on the surface for five 
minutes, or more. The appearance was like a 
string of buoys, thirty or forty of which of about 
the size of a barrel were exhibited. The head 
appeared to be six or eight feet long, and where 
it was connected with the body was larger 
than the body, but it tapered off to the size of 
a horse's head. The body was of a deep brown 
or black color, but the tail was not visible. 
The sea was calm, the wind light, and the sky 
clear. 

The frequent visits made by this anomalous 
creature to the harbor of Gloucester, in the 
year 1817, have probably rendered him more 
notorious than any other circumstance con- 
nected with his history. The first information 
which the inhabitants of Gloucester received 
of the presence of the serpent in their harbor, 
was obtained from the master of a coasting 
vessel, belonging to George's river, Maine. 
He reported, early in August, that he had been 
frightened by a huge serpent lying alongside 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 233 

of his vessel ; his head appeared to be resting 
on the cable, and his tail extending beyond the 
stern. The vessel, according to her rate of ton- 
age, must have been about sixty feet long. The 
account was discredited, and the master sought 
refuge from ridicule on board his sloop. 

A subsequent relation given by Amos Story, a 
respectable man, living upon the extreme of the 
harbor, excited the curiosity, though it was not 
calculated to remove the doubts of the inhabit- 
ants. On the 10th of August, he saw a strange 
animal, which he believed to be a serpent, 
moving rapidly through the water, and eleva- 
ting his head, which was shaped like that of 
a sea-turtle, about a foot above the surface. 
He continued in sight for an hour and a half. 
His color was of a dark brown, and his cir- 
cumference was about equal to that of a man's 
body. He (Mr. Story) saw fifty feet of his 
length, but did not discover any bunches upon 
his back. During the month of August he 
was seen by a variety of different individuals, 
eleven or twelve of whom observed him at dis- 
tances varying from forty to eight hundred 
feet. In most cases, where he was seen near, 
he did not show his body more than from 
twelve to twenty feet out of water, in which 
instances the protuberances were not evident, 
but those persons who saw 60, 70, or 90 feet 
of his length, all mention his joints, rings, 
bunches or swells ; and one gentleman in par- 
ticular, who saw him lying still, observed 
20* 



234 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

these bunches very distinctly, about one foot 
in height, upon his back. 

Captain Toppan, and two of his crew, on 
board the Laura, of Newburyport, saw his 
head within 30 or 50 feet, and describe it with 
minuteness. It was formed like that of a ser- 
pent, his tongue was thrust out, and appeared 
about two feet in length ; this he raised several 
times over his head, and then let it fall again ; 
it was of a light brown color, and the end of 
it resembled a harpoon. The eye was like 
that of an ox, and there appeared to be a small 
bunch over it on each side of his head. The 
animal did not appear to be disturbed by the 
vessel, and his motion was much swifter than 
that of any whale. 

When he contracts his joints in a propelling 
motion, his folds appear rugged and bristling 
with life ; but when he ceases to move, his 
scales enclose, and he seems to be compara- 
tively smooth. He swims underneath the wa- 
ter with greater rapidity than when his body 
is exposed to view upon the surface. The 
head has been described as a terrific object ; 
its dark-brown color is mixed with some streaks 
of a lighter hue, and it is likened in its hard 
and scaly appearance to a "weather-beaten 
rock." One person, Mr. Gaffeny, at Glouces- 
ter, a good marksman, fired at him with his 
gun at thirty feet distance, with a ball eighteen 
to the pound, which he supposed must have 
taken effect, though the ball might, and proba- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 235 

bly did turn aside, in consequence of glancing 
upon his scales. 

In the summer of 1818 the sea-serpent was 
seen off Cape Ann. On one occasion, when 
he was encountered by Captain Webber and 
others, two harpoons were thrown at and 
struck him, but without making any incision. 
Several balls were also fired at him, with no 
effect but making him dive under water. On 
another of his appearances in the harbor, a 
boat went off with muskets, and they fired at 
him seven or eight times, but knew not wheth- 
er they hit him. Apparently they did not 
hurt, however ; for though on the firing he 
went under water, he soon rose again, and 
played about on the surface as before. 

Mr. Hodgkins, a very intelligent man of 
about fifty years of age, who had followed the 
sea all his life, made the following statement. 
It is dated Gloucester, Aug. 18, 1818. He 
says — " Returning from Newburyport into 
Squam harbor, on Wednesday last, in Che- 
bacco boat, where we had been for the pur- 
pose of obtaining fishing bait, and having 
failed to get a supply, we were in hopes of 
taking some on our passage. When off Che- 
bacco bar, it being perfectly calm, we discov- 
ered something, at the distance of a mile or 
more, which we were in hopes was a shoal of 
bait, making a great agitation on the smooth 
surface of the water. It seemed to approach 
us rapidly ; when it came nearer, we were 



236 WONDERS OF THE OCEAX. 

convinced we had been in error, and what we 
took for a shoal of blackflsh was nothing less 
than the bunches on the back of the celebrated 
sea-serpent. He made directly for the boat 
until he came within fifty yards ; he then 
sunk under water, and we were much alarm- 
ed lest he should rise under us, as we had 
no power of getting from him, we lying be- 
calmed. 

" When he came up he was thirty feet from 
us, and we had a perfect view of him. His 
head was elevated from three to five feet ; the 
distance from his neck to the first bunch was 
about six feet. We counted twenty bunches, 
and supposed them on an average about five 
feet apart. When we first saw him, there 
appeared a rippling in the water, which made 
a noise not unlike water running rapidly over 
loose pebbles. On his nearer approach, we 
found it was the ripple made by the bunches 
on his back. It was 12 o'clock, noon, when 
we saw him ; the weather clear and the sea 
smooth. His head was of a dark-brown color, 
formed like a seal's, and had a glossy appear- 
ance. His body was of the size of a 60 or 80 
gallon cask." 

During the summer of 1819, and especially 
during the month of August, the serpent was 
seen more frequently than ever before, and by 
large numbers of people of the most unques- 
tionable credit. The following is one among 
a multitude of statements that appeared in the 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 237 

Columbian Centinel, published at Boston. It 
is dated Brookline, Aug. 19, 1819. 

The writer says — " I got into my chaise 
about 7 o'clock in the morning to come to Bos- 
ton, and on reaching the long beach, observed 
a number of people collected, and several boats 
pushing off', and in the offing. As my curiosity 
was directed towards the boats, to ascertain 
the course they were taking, my attention was 
suddenly arrested by an object emerging from 
the water at the distance of about 100 or 150 
yards, which gave to my mind, at the first 
glance, the idea of a horse's head. As my eye 
ranged along, I perceived, at a short distance, 
eight or ten regular bunches or protuberances, 
and at a short interval three or four more. I 
was now satisfied that the sea-serpent was 
before me ; and, after the first moment of ex- 
citement produced by the sight of so strange a 
monster, tasked myself to investigate his ap- 
pearance as accurately as I could. 

" My first object was the head, which I satis- 
fied myself was serpent-shaped. It was ele- 
vated about two feet from the water, and he 
depressed it gradually to within six or eight 
inches as he moved along. I could always see 
under his chin, which appeared hollow under- 
neath, or to curve downward. His motion 
was at that time very slow along the beach, 
inclining towards the shore. He at first moved 
his head from side to side, as if to look about 
him. I did not see his eyes, though I have no 



238 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

doubt I could have seen them if I had thought 
to attend to this. His bunches appeared to me 
not altogether uniform in size ; and as he 
moved along, some appeared to be depressed, 
and others brought above the surface, though 
I could not perceive any motion in them. 

" My next object was to ascertain his length : 
for this purpose I directed my eye to several 
whale-boats at about the same distance, one 
of which was beyond him, and by comparing 
the relative length, I calculated that the dis- 
tance from the animal's head to the last pro- 
tuberance I had noticed would be equal to about 
five of those boats. I felt persuaded by this 
examination that he could not be less than 
eighty feet long ; and as he approached the 
shore, and came between me and a point of 
land which projects from the eastern part of 
the beach, I had another means of satisfying 
myself on this point. 

" After I had viewed him thus attentively 
for about four or five minutes, he sunk gradu- 
ally into the water and disappeared ; he after- 
wards again made his appearance for a mo- 
ment at a short distance. 

" My first reflection, after the animal was 
gone, was, that the idea I had received from 
the description you gave of the animal you 
saw off Gloucester in 1817, was perfectly re- 
alized in this instance, and that I had discov- 
ered nothing which you had not before de- 
scribed. The most authentic testimony given 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 239 

of his first appearance there, seemed remark- 
ably correct, and I felt as if the appearance 
of this monster had been already familiar to 
me. 

" After remaining some two or three hours 
on the beach without again seeing him, I re- 
turned tow r ards Nahant, and in crossing the 
small beach had another good view of him, 
bat at a greater distance. At this time he 
moved more rapidly, causing a white foam 
under the chin, and a long w T ake, and his pro- 
tuberances had a more uniform appearance. 
At this time he must have been seen by tw r o 
or three hundred persons on the beach and on 
heights each side, some of whom were very 
favorably situated to observe him." 

This description is from the pen of Samuel 
Cabot, and is addressed to Col. T. H. Perkins, 
of Boston. The authenticity of this account 
we shall not attempt to strengthen, but other 
interesting particulars of the same appearance 
might be selected from a large mass of un- 
questionable testimony. The following is ex- 
tracted from a letter of James Prince, Esq., 
U. S. Marshal of the District of Boston, to the 
Hon. Judge Davis, of that city, dated Aug. 16, 
1819. The scene described took place at Na- 
hant. 

" His head appeared about three feet out of 
water. 1 counted thirteen bunches on his back 
— my family thought there were fifteen. He 
crossed three times at a moderate rate across 



240 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

the bay, but so fleet as to occasion a foam in 
the water. My family and self, who were in 
a carriage, judged that he was from fifty and 
not more than sixty feet in length. As he 
swam up the bay, we and the other spectators 
moved on and kept nearly abreast of him. I 
had seven distinct views of him from the long 
beach, and at some of them the animal was 
not more than 100 yards distant. On passing 
the second beach, we were again gratified 
beyond even what we saw in the other bay, 
which I concluded he had left in consequence 
of the number of boats in the offing in pursuit 
of him. We had here more than a dozen dif- 
ferent views of him, each similar to the other, 
— one, however, so near that the coachman 
exclaimed, ' See his glistening eye.' " 

It is well known that some persons seem to 
disbelieve in the existence of the sea-serpent ; 
but testimony like the above might be found 
to fill a volume, and of the first respectability. 
Captain West, of Hallowell, who commanded 
the packet Delia, saw the sea-serpent engaged 
in fight with a whale. The serpent used his 
tail for a weapon of warfare, which he raised 
to the height of 25 or 30 feet, and with which 
he would strike the whale with tremendous 
force. The contest was fierce, and minutely 
described by the captain, as well as by a Mr. 
Schmid of Philadelphia, and others who were 
on board the Delia. The particulars would 
occupy too much space for this article ; but 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 241 

they may be found in the appendix to the 
fourth volume of the work named. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA. 

It is in its animal productions that we re- 
ceive the most lively impressions of the vast, 
the almost boundless fertility of the sea ; a 
fertility, compared w r ith which the whole of 
the land and all its inhabitants, numerous and 
varied as they are, sink into absolute insigni- 
ficance. We might arrive at some such con- 
clusion as this beforehand, by reflecting on the 
peculiar structure of the sea, and on the vast 
extent of the earth's surface which it occupies ; 
and when we come to consider this great ques- 
tion of the productiveness of the waters, we 
must include the lakes and rivers, and every 
body of water which contains a living inhab- 
itant, whether that water is salt or fresh, or 
whether it is stagnant or in motion. This is 
not the place for enumerating, far less describ- 
ing, the animals of the deep and of its tributary 
waters ; but it is impossible to overlook one 
or two of the leading facts, or to have any 
thing like a correct notion of the inducements 
which we have to the study of the sea, with- 
out taking them, however briefly, into consid- 
eration. 

In the first place, excepting a certain limited 
space around each pole, and probably there 
21 



242 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 

only for a limited depth below the surface, the 
sea knows no winter which can be considered 
as a provisionless season, to some part at least 
of its living inhabitants ; and as we descend 
in latitude, its action throughout the year be- 
comes more and more uniform, until there is 
in the tropical sea a much more perennial 
abundance than there is in those favored isles 
of the east, which are rendered at once so fer- 
tile and so salubrious by the continual play 
of the sea winds over their surfaces. 

In the second place, and independently al- 
together of its greater extent in breadth, there 
is a depth of inhabitableness and production 
in the sea, to which, in the nature of things, 
there can be nothing responding upon the 
land. Say, that over the whole extent, the 
average depth to which the sea can be inhab- 
ited is only thirty fathoms, — fish have been 
taken at, at least, double this depth ; but as 
the case needs no overstraining, we shall take 
it as much within the limit, in order to make 
allowance for the banks and shallows. The 
whole of this depth, throughout every inch, is 
equally inhabitable by fishes ; and as their 
specific gravity is beautifully adapted to that 
of the water, they can breathe with perfect 
ease, or without effort, at every inch through- 
out this depth. 

If nearer the surface, they are no doubt sub- 
jected to a smaller pressure ; and if deeper, to 
a greater : but the pressure, so long as the 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 243 

whole body of the fish is covered with water, 
is very nearly the same in every part of it ; 
and we know, from our own experience, that 
we feel much more energetic under an increase 
of atmospheric pressure, and languid as that 
pressure is removed, unless there is a bracing 
influence of cold which shall make up the dif- 
ference. When we ascend to a mountain-top, 
we have the advantage of this cold ; though 
even there the small vessels in the lips, nostrils, 
and other places which are kept warm by the 
act of breathing, are apt to burst and bleed in 
consequence of the removal of pressure. And 
if we remain at the same elevation, and at the 
same temperature or a higher one, the dimin- 
ished atmospheric pressure produces languor, 
and we feel heavy because the atmosphere 
around us is light. Thus there is a far more 
extensive range for the inhabitants of the sea 
than there is for those of the land. 

It may, however, appear to such as have not 
reflected on the subject, that there may be a 
want of subsistence ; for we are so much ac- 
customed, from what we observe around us, 
to connect subsistence with the mere surface 
of the earth, or that which immediately grows 
out of this surface or is attached to it, that we 
may not be able, very readily, to bring our- 
selves to understand how there can be count- 
less millions of living creatures, " faring sump- 
tuously every day," over those unfathomable 
depths of the ocean, when probably not one 



244 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. 

of them ever approaches within several miles 
of the bottom. This difficulty instantly van- 
ishes, however, when we consider, 

Thirdly, the extraordinary productive pow- 
ers of the inhabitants of the sea, especially of 
many of the fishes — indeed of all of them — as 
compared with any animals upon land, except 
such as are of diminutive size, and remarkable 
for the short period of their lives. The pro- 
duce of one cod-fish, in a single season, is near- 
er four millions than three ; and though we 
have no evidence of the fact, and such analo- 
gies as we are able to draw from land animals 
are rather against it, it is not improbable that 
this immense production may be repeated ev- 
ery year. The year is the general cycle of 
production among most of the tribes of nature ; 
and among the mammalia on land, though we 
know many instances in which it is much 
shorter than this, we believe that the elephant 
is the only well-authenticated one in which it 
is longer. 

This productiveness is not confined to the 
fishes, but extends to the smaller inhabitants 
of the sea; and during the proper season, a 
pin's point can hardly be put down on the 
rocks favorable to production, without touch- 
ing some little shell or other living creature 
in a rudimental state ; every bit of seaweed, 
too, whether fixed or floating, has its numer- 
ous colonies, all in progress towards maturity ; 
and even the water, when it presents nothing 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 245 

to the naked eye, and is merely a little turbid 
to the microscope, (if the power of that instru- 
ment is not all the greater.) is full of life of 
some sort or other ; and if we boil it, it gives 
out that peculiar odor which is common to al- 
most every animal of the sea, when in a recent 
state, and which cannot be mistaken for any 
other. 



PRESSURE OF THE SEA. 

If a piece of wood which floats on the wa- 
ter be forced down to a great depth in the sea, 
the pressure of the surrounding fluid will be 
so severe, that a quantity of water will be for- 
ced into the pores of the wood and so increase 
its weight, that it will no longer be able to 
float or rise to the surface. Hence the tim- 
bers of ships, which have foundered in a deep 
part of the ocean, never rise again to the sur- 
face, like those which are sunk near the shore. 

A diver may with impunity plunge to cer- 
tain depths in the sea, but there is a limit be- 
yond which he could not live under the pres- 
sure to which he is subjected. For the same 
reason it is probable that there is a depth be- 
low which fishes cannot live. They have, ac- 
cording to Joshlin, been caught at a depth at 
which they must have sustained a pressure of 
eighty tons to each square foot of the surface 
of their bodies. 

21* 



246 WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 



THE FROZEN CREW 



1 Miserable they 



Who here entangled in the gathering ice 
Take their last look at the descending sun. 
While full of death, and fierce with ten-fold frosts, 
The long, long night, incumbent o'er their heads : 
Too horrible." — Thomson. 

There are fearful wonders on the ocean — 
wonders in the tempest, and in the calm, in 
the tropical heat, and in the cold and frozen 
seas. Thousands and tens of thousands go 
down into the deep, and are no more seen for- 
ever. A more fearful fate has befallen a thou- 
sand sons of the ocean. Long before the idea 
of the existence of a new world was contem- 
plated by Europeans, the northern seas had 
been traversed in every direction by the daring 
freebooters of the north, who often bore the 
title of " the kings of the sea." They had dis- 
covered Iceland, and the settlement there form- 
ed became an asylum for the hosts of north- 
men, who were driven from Scandinavia by 
the gradual approach of southern civilization. 

In time, Iceland also sent forth her colonies, 
and early in the tenth century effected a settle- 
ment on the coast of Greenland. It long lan- 
guished for want of a sufficient population ; in 
988, Ericke Rande, an Icelandic chieftain, fit- 
ted out an expedition of twenty galleys, at 
Snaefell, and having manned them with suffi- 
cient crews of colonists, set forth from Iceland, 
bound to what appeared to them a more con- 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 247 

genial climate. They sailed upon the ocean 
fifteen days, and saw no land. 

The next day brought with it a storm, and 
many a gallant vessel sunk in the deep. Moun- 
tains of ice covered the waters as far as the 
eye could reach, and but few galleys of the 
fleet escaped destruction. The morning of the 
seventeenth day was clear and cloudless. The 
sea was calm, and far away to the north could 
be seen the glare of ice-fields reflecting on the 
sky. The remains of the scattered fleet gath- 
ered together to pursue their voyage. But the 
galley of Ericke was not with them. The 
crew of the galley which was driven farther 
north than the rest, reported, that as the morn- 
ing broke, the huge fields of ice that had cov- 
ered the ocean, were driven past them by the 
currents, and that they beheld the galley of 
Ericke Rande borne with a resistless force, 
and with the speed of the wind, before a tre- 
mendous flake of ice. 

Her crew had lost all control over her, they 
were tossing their arms in wild agony. Scarcely 
a moment elapsed ere it was walled in by a 
hundred icy hills, and the whole mass moved 
forward and was soon beyond the horizon. 
That the galley of the narrators of this story 
escaped was wonderful. It remained, how- 
ever, uncontradicted, and the vessel of Ericke 
Rande was never seen more. 

Half a century after this event, a Danish 
colony was established on the western coast 



248 WONDEKS OF THE OCEAN. 

of Greenland. The crew of the vessel that 
carried the colonists thither, in their excursion 
into the interior, had crossed a range of hills 
that stretched to the northward ; they had ap- 
proached, perhaps, nearer to the pole than any 
succeeding adventurers. Upon looking down 
from the summit of the hills, they beheld a vast 
and almost interminable field of ice undulating 
in various places and formed into a thousand 
grotesque shapes. They saw, not far from the 
shore, the figure of an icy vessel with a glit- 
tering icicle in place of a mast arising from it. 

Curiosity prompted them to approach, when 
they beheld a dismal sight. Figures of men 
in every attitude of wo were upon the deck, 
but they were icy things. One figure alone 
stood erect, and with folded arms leaning 
against the mast. A hatchet was procured 
and the ice split away, and the features of a 
chieftain were disclosed ; pallid and deathly, 
but free from decay. This was doubtless the 
vessel, and that figure the form of Ericke 
Kande. Benumbed with cold, and in the agony 
of despair, his crew had fallen around him. 
He alone had stood erect while the chill of 
death passed over them. 

The spray of the ocean and the falling sleet 
had frozen as it lighted upon them, and covered 
each figure with an icy robe, which the short- 
lived glance of a Greenland sun had not power 
to dissolve. The Danes gazed upon the spec- 
tacle with trembling. 



WOXDERS OF THE OCEAN. 249 

They knew not but the same might be their 
fate. They kneeled down upon the deck and 
uttered a prayer in their native tongue for 
the frozen crew, then hastily left the place, for 
the night was fast approaching. 



ELECTRIC EEL, OR GYMNOTUS. 

Of the gymnotus tribe, some of the species 
inhabit the fresh water and others the ocean, 
and with the exception of three of them, all are 
confined to the continent of America. It is 
from three to five feet in length, and ten or 
twelve inches in circumference in the broadest 
part of the body ; and has the capability of 
swimming backward as well as forward. Their 
color is an olive green, and the head yellow 
mingled with red. The head is flat, and the 
mouth wide and toothless. From the point of 
its tail to within six inches of its head, extends 
a fin about two inches deep, and which is an 
inch thick at its junction with the body. As 
there are several annular divisions, or rather 
rugoe, of the skin across the body, it would 
seem that the fish partakes of the vermicular 
nature, and can contract or dilate itself at 
pleasure. 

The electrical shock is conveyed either 
through the hand, or any metallic conductor 
which touches the fish ; and a stroke of one of 
the largest kind, if properly applied, would 



250 WONDEBS OF THE OCEAN". 

prove instant death to even the human species. 
This extraordinary power is given to this fish, 
not only for defence, but subsistence. For 
whenever small fishes or worms are thrown 
into the water, they are first struck dead by 
the electrical power of the animal, and after- 
wards swallowed by him. 

M. Humboldt gives an interesting account 
of the manner in which they catch these crea- 
tures, by w r hat they call " fishing with horses." 
After having scoured the Savannah, and caught 
about thirty wild horses and mules, they drove 
them into the pool in which were the electri- 
cal eels. The extraordinary noise caused by 
the horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the 
mud and excites them to combat. These yel- 
lowish and livid eels, resembling larger aquatic 
serpents, swim on the surface of the water, 
and crowd under the bellies of the horses and 
mules. A contest between animals of so dif- 
ferent an organization furnishes a very strik- 
ing spectacle. 

The Indians, provided with harpoons and 
long slender reeds, surround the pool closely ; 
and some climb upon the trees, the branches 
of which extend horizontally over the surface 
of the water. By their wild cries and the 
length of their reeds, they prevent the horses 
from running away and reaching the bank of 
the pool. The eels, stunned by the noise, de- 
fend themselves by the repeated discharge of 
their electric batteries. During a long time 



WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. 251 

they seem to prove victorious. Several horses 
sink beneath the violence of the invisible 
strokes, which they receive from all sides in 
organs the most essential to life, and stunned 
by the force and frequency of the shocks, dis- 
appear under the water. 

Others, panting, with mane erect and hag- 
gard eyes expressing anguish, raise themselves 
and endeavor to flee from the storm by which 
they are overtaken. They are driven back by 
the Indians into the middle of the water ; but 
a small number succeed in eluding the active 
vigilance of the fisherman. These regain the 
shore, stumbling at every step, and stretch 
themselves on the sand, exhausted with fa- 
tigue, and their limbs benumbed by the elec- 
tric shocks of the gymnoti. 

" In less than five minutes two horses were 
drowned. The eel being five feet long, and 
pressing itself against the belly of the horse, 
makes a discharge along the whole extent of 
its electric organ. It attacks at once the heart, 
the intestines, and the plexus cosliacus, or ab- 
dominal nerves. It is natural that the effect 
felt by the horses should be more powerful 
than that produced upon man by the touch of 
the same fish at only one of his extremities. 
The horses are probably not killed, but only 
stunned. They are drowned from the impos- 
sibility of rising amid the prolonged struggle 
between the other horses and the eels. 

" We had little doubt that the fishing would 



252 WONDERS OP THE OCEAN. ' 

terminate by killing successively all the ani- 
mals engaged ; but by degrees the impetuosity 
of this unequal contest diminished, and the 
wearied gymnoti dispersed, They require a 
long rest, and abundant nourishment, to repair 
what they have lost of galvanic force. The 
mules and horses appear less frightened ; their 
manes are no longer bristled, and their eyes 
express less dread. The gymnoti approach 
timidly the edge of the marsh, where they are 
taken by means of small harpoons fastened to 
long cords. When the cords are very dry, the 
Indians feel no shock on raising the fish into 
the air. In a few minutes we had five large 
eels, the greater part of which were but slight- 
ly wounded." 



